The Key's Keeper
by ThexHushxSound
Summary: The events of Kingdom Hearts with the addition of my OC, Katy. What if every Keyblade Master had a protector? Katy didn't ask for the job, but shes hell bent on doing it right. She'd follow Sora to the ends of the galaxy if it means keeping him safe.
1. Rude Awakenings

**Authors Note: First ever Kingdom hearts fiction! No flames please, but let me know if it's way to close to the real thing. I've been using the majority of the dialogue directly from the cut-scenes in game. (Thanks to )**

Disclaimer- I do not own anything that belongs to Kingdom Hearts. Just Katy and Ryan :-)

* * *

**Chapter 1**

The black monster hovered above him. Delivering blow after blow he fought back, sweat dripping down his forehead and into his deep blue eyes. The shadow gave a shriek and recoiled, only to advance again. Stumbling backwards, he began to fall. Down. Down. Down. Finally, Sora opened his eyes, only to find that an equally blue pair of eyes was staring down at him.

"Whoa!" he yelled jumping clear off the ground.

The red-headed girl leaning over him giggled at his expense watching as he scrambled into a sitting position.

"Gimmie a break, Kairi."

"Sora, you lazy bum. I knew that I'd find you snoozing down here." Kairi joked watching him with her hands clasped behind her back.

"No! This huge, black THING swallowed me up! I couldn't breathe, I couldn't--"

He was interrupted by Kairi slapping him upside the head.

"OW!"

"Are you still dreaming?" She asked resting her hands on her knees, studying him as though to make sure he wasn't going crazy.

"It wasn't a dream!" Sora protested feebly

"Or was it? I don't know." He said, more to himself than his friend.

"What _was_ that place? So bizarre…" He wondered out loud

"Yeah, sure." Kairi said rolling her eyes, going to look out at the ocean before them.

"Say, Kairi. What was your hometown like? You know, where you grew up?" Sora asked for the umpteenth time.

"I've told you before," Kairi answered with a laugh

"I don't remember."

"Nothing, at all?" He pressed.

"Nothing."

"You ever want to go back?"

"Hm. Well, I'm…happy here."

"Really…" He said trying not to sound disbelieving

"But you know… I wouldn't mind going to see it."

"I'd like to see it too. Along with any other worlds out there! I wanna see 'em all!"

"So, what are we waiting for?" Kairi exclaimed, excitedly.

"Hey!" A voice called out.

"Aren't you guys forgetting about me?"

The pair's other friend; Riku was standing a few feet behind them, holding a rather large log.

"So, I guess I'm the only one working on the raft."

He tossed the log to the ground, narrowly missing Sora, who cried out. Kairi giggled as he approached her, resting his hands on his hips.

"And you're just as lazy as he is!" He scolded playfully.

"So you noticed." She said back, biting her lip slightly before continuing.

"Okay, we'll finish it together! I'll race you!"

"Huh?" Sora asked, not really liking the idea of getting off the ground.

"What? Are you kidding?" Riku whined, already slumped lazily next to Sora.

"Ready? GO!"

The two boys exchanged disbelieving glances before jumping up and racing across the beach, their minds set on finishing the raft today."

**

* * *

  
**

"Katyana! Get you're lazy ass up right now!"

A girl of about 15 gave a yelp as she was woken from her slumber. Not processing where she was, she began to wrestle with the covers around her until they finally released her, sending her tumbling to the ground.

"Um…OW!" She mumbled to herself rubbing the back of her head.

"Katyana!"

"I'M AWAKE!" She yelled to her nagging mother, whom was on her way to her daughter's bedroom.

"It's about time! It's 12:00 in the afternoon! I made you eggs for breakfast, but they're probably getting freezer burn now, they've been out so long!"

Her mother's tirade was interrupted by the phone. As she left to answer it she called back;

"And fix that bed!"

Falling backwards onto the evil, body snatching sheets, Katyana, or Katy as most _normal_ people called her, sighed dramatically and did the only thing that made sense in a situation like this. She called Ryan.

"Hullo?" a groggy voice answered.

"Open your window; I'll be there in five minutes." Katy whispered, trying to find clothes that matched.

"Mmkay." Came the sleepy reply and Katy rolled her eyes as she snapped her phone shut.

Opening her window, she managed to climb down the trellis beneath it in one piece, which was saying something considering she was half asleep. She walked the block and a half to Ryan's, scaled the brick wall to get to his window, and pulled herself into his room with a loud thump that made the still sleeping boy groan.

"Quit being a baby." She mumbled as she shoved him over, dodging his slapping hands.

She lied down next to him happily, ready to get another two or three hours of sleep.

**

* * *

  
**

Sora sighed and rolled his eyes periodically as he listened to Riku go on and on about all of the other worlds and how it was all thanks to Kairi that he was thinking about them.

"Kairi, Thanks." Riku said sincerely

Kairi gave a giggle and nodded

"You're welcome."

The trio watched the sunset for a bit longer before deciding to call it a night. The walked in silence until Riku called out.

"Sora!"

Sora turned around just in time to catch the star shaped fruit that Riku had flung at him.

"You wanted one, didn't you?"

"A paopu fruit…"

"If two people share one, their destinies become intertwined. They'll remain a part of each other's lives…no matter what."

Sora just continued to stare down confusedly at the piece of fruit.

"C'mon, I know you want to try it." Riku taunted, walking away.

"What are you talking--?" Sora started to say before he got what Riku was saying.

Why did everyone think he had a crush on Kairi?

His friend just laughed and continued toward his house, Sora running after him.

**

* * *

  
**

Meanwhile…

Donald Duck, one of King Mickey's royal mages, was making his normal trip to the castle to greet the King.

"Good morning, you're Majesty." He called out as he walked down the ridiculously long stretch of floor that led to the King's throne.

"It's nice to see you this morn--"

It was when he was halfway down the ridiculously long stretch of floor that he saw that the King was not present.

"WHAT!?"

King Mickey's dog, Pluto, came out from behind the throne, a letter bearing the King's seal in his mouth. Donald snatched up the letter and read it over. His enraged yell echoed throughout the entire castle, maybe even the entire kingdom.

He ran out into the courtyard where he knew his friend Goofy was supposed to be. He found him sleeping soundly, blissfully unaware of the crisis at hand. After several attempts of waking the knight up civilly, Donald hit him with a bolt of lightning from his staff.

"Hey, there Donald. G'morning!"

" We've got a problem, Goofy." Donald said, cutting his friend off.

"But don't tell anyone…"

Goofy blinked sleepily.

"Queen Minnie?"

"Not even the Queen!"

"Daisy?"

"NO!"

"G'morning ladies!"

Donald stiffened and turned around where the queen and Daisy were watching their exchange and not looking too happy.

**

* * *

  
**

_You treat me just like another stranger.  
Well it's nice to meet you sir.  
I guess I'll go.  
I best be on my way out._

_You treat me just like another stranger.  
Well it's nice to meet you sir.  
I guess I'll go.  
I best be on my way out._

_Ignorance is your new best friend.  
Ignorance is your new best friend._

Trying to ignore the catchy pop tune, Katy turned over trying to get back to sleep, only to have Ryan hit her over the head repeatedly with a pillow.

"Whatsgoingon?" She slurred, trying to understand why someone was waking her up so early.

"Make it stoooooooooop!" He whined, trading the pillow for a notebook that was resting on his nightstand.

"Ow! Cut it out!"

"Your phone! Answer your God damn phone!"

_Don't wanna hear your sad songs,  
I don't wanna feel your pain,  
When you swear it's all my fault,  
'Cause you know we're not the same.  
We're not the same,  
Oh we're not the same,  
_

_The friends who stuck together,  
We wrote our names in blood,  
But I guess you can't accept that the change is good,  
It's good  
It's good  
It's good_

Following the music, Katy answered the phone.

"Y'ello?"

"KATYANA ALEXANDRIA TANNITH! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN FOR THE LAST THREE HOURS?"

Wincing at the high decibel level, she handed the phone to Ryan.

"It's for you."

"Okay?" he said tentatively, taking the phone and then throwing it to the edge of his bed when he heard who was on the other line.

"Break my phone and I'll break your face." Katy called from down the hall.

"Real mature!" he fired back

"I'm stealing your shower!" was the only reply he got.

Katy turned the water as hot as she could stand and stepped into the shower. She had such a weird dream last night. She had this cool looking shield with this weird symbol on it, and she ran up these crazy stained glass stairs before battling epically with he shadow, who turned out to be a total sore loser and tried to drown her in this freaky dark stuff. It was right about then that her mother had woken her up.

There hade been something else too, something about a key sword? And a name, a boys name. It started with an 'S'.

"Samuel, Scott, Saul." She muttered to herself trying to remember.

Katy finally gave up and climbed out of the shower. She tugged on a hot pink t-shirt with a yellow skull and black lightning bolts, a pair of ripped black leggings and a holey jean skirt. Sliding on her black converse, she walked back into Ryan's room and brushed out her long hair which she dyed a lavender color just to drive her mom up a wall.

"You're mom tried to wake you up again?" Ryan asked from the doorway.

"Doesn't she always? You'd think she's give up by now."

"Well, she does succeed…you have to be awake to walk here."

"Did I mention I love you for that?"

"Nope."

"I love you for that."

"Sure, sure. You wanna hang out here for a while? I have Call of Duty 4."

"As much as I would like to kick your ass at video games, I should probably get cracking on my photography assignment for school."

Ryan snickered.

"Okay, have fun."

Katy flicked his head as she left his room, clamoring down the steps and shutting the front door with a snap as she exited.

Half walking, half skipping down the street to her house, slid into the garage silently and retrieved her camera from its secret hiding place. She decided to go to the café in town to get some breakfast and on the way back she could take some pictures at the skate park. The assignment was 'life in motion' so boys risking their lives on skateboards should meet the requirement. As she made her way to town square, she noticed that thick, black storm clouds were rolling in and—was that lightning? Groaning to herself, she knew she should probably head home, or at least back to Ryan's, but she really, _really_ needed to get this project done. Shoving her headphones in her ears to block out the sounds of thunder, she continued to the café. I only she knew what would happen next.

**

* * *

  
**

_**Donald,**_

_**Sorry to rush off without sayin' goodbye, but there's big trouble brewin'. Not sure why, but the stars have been blinkin' out, one by one. And that means disaster can't be far behind. I hate to leave you all, but I've gotta go check on it. There are two people out there. One with a 'key'-- the key to our survival and the other is the 'key's' protector, someone that will keep him safe. So I need you and Goofy to find them, and stick with them. Got it? We need both of them or we're doomed! So go to Traverse Town and find Leon. He'll point you in the right direction.**_

_**P.S. Would ya apologize to Minnie for me? Thanks, pal.**_

_**King Mickey**_


	2. The Apocolypse and Mutant Bunnies

**Authors Note: Thanks to NejisDarkNymph for reviewing! ONWARD!**

Disclaimer: Don't own anything that you recognize from Kingdom Hearts. Just Katy and Ryan.

* * *

**Chapter 2**

Sora was stretched out on his bed, waiting for his mom to call him down for dinner. Thought of setting sail and finally seeing what was out there swirled around his mind and he sighed contentedly. A crash of thunder stopped his revelations and he looked out his window just in time to see lightning lighting up the whole sky.

"A storm?" he muttered to himself watching as the tide rose higher and crashed to the beach with a loud rushing noise.

"Oh, no! The raft!"

Sora ran outside, stopping short on the pier to look up at the black, cloud ridden sky.

"What is that?" He gasped, referring to the large black hole looking thing that was in the sky, just below the clouds.

Suddenly small shadow creatures rose from the ground and began to swarm.

'_It's those things from my dream!_' He thought to himself as he stumbled backwards.

Spotting Riku standing on the opposite pier by the seaside shack, he broke away from the swarm and took off in that direction. When his friend was in earshot she called out.

"Where's Kairi?! I thought she was with you!"

Riku didn't answer. Instead he answered in a dethatched voice

"The door has opened…"

"What?" Sora asked confused.

It was along the same thing that strange man in the secret place had told him. Something about a door? Sora didn't care about a freaking door; he just wanted to know that his friend was okay.

"The door has opened, Sora!" Riku insisted, sounding impatient.

"Now we can go to the outside world!"

"What are you talking about?! We've gotta find Kairi!"

"Kairi's coming with us!"

Sora took a step away from Riku. It was official, he had gone crazy.

"Once we step through, we might not be able to come back. We may never see our parents again. There's no turning back. But this may be our only chance. We can't let fear stop us. I'm not afraid of the darkness!"

Riku finished his tirade and held his hand out to Sora.

"Riku…" Sora said nervously, looking down at the dark pit of, well, darkness that had formed below his friend.

Tentacle like ribbons of it came up and wrapped around Riku's torso, causing Sora to panic and run into the pit, stumbling as he was held fast. He reached desperately for his friend as he sunk down further into the darkness. And then just as their fingers brushed, the darkness consumed Riku, completely pulling him under.

And suddenly there was a blade in his hand. It was shaped like a key and felt natural in his grip. Voices seemed to echo around him. They all seemed to be saying one thing.

"Keyblade."

**

* * *

**

The storm had gotten worse. No, it wasn't even a storm anymore. The freaking apocalypse was among them. Katy had long since left the café and was on her way back to Ryan's house. She'd rather be there than with her paranoid mother. Suddenly black _things_ began to rise from the ground.

"Holy crap! They're freaking zombie bunnies from hell!" She yelled out, running down the block and banging on Ryan's door. In one swift motion, he opened it and yanked her inside.

"Ryan!"

"Katy! Jesus Christ, what's happening?"

"I don't know! There's this freaky storm out of no where, and that HUGE black hole thing, and the bunnies that just materialize out of the ground!"

"Wait, bunnies?"

"Yes!" Katy screamed, pointing behind him.

There was a ton of them and they all had their beady yellow eyes locked on her. All at once they pounced, leaping a good 20 feet into the air and flying toward her.

And then Ryan was there. He pulled her behind him, the creatures landing on him instead and he was dragged into the middle of the swarm, yelling every inch of the way.

Katy slid to the floor, screaming bloody murder as she looked away, tears running down her face. When the shadows parted, Ryan was gone, just gone.

There was nothing to stop them from attacking her now so she squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the deadly impact. It never came. She opened one eye to see that there was some kind of force field around her. She looked around trying to see what was causing it, to find that it was coming from two short key shaped blades that were resting in her lap.

Wasting no time, she ran at the shadows with a feral shriek hacking away at them and obliterating them until they were nothing. She ran to Ryan's basement, locking the door behind her. She huddled herself into a corner, the blades beside her and waited for it all to be over.

* * *

Sora ran through the strange looking door that was in front of the secret place to find Kairi standing in front of the other door that was inside.

"Kairi!" He called out urgently.

She turned toward him slowly, looking like she could barely keep herself standing.

"Sora…" she moaned, extending her hand.

The door behind her opened and darkness flew in pushing Kairi toward him as though she weighed nothing.

He opened his arms, and she should have fallen right into them…But she disappeared.

The pull of the darkness reversed and sucked him through the door, throwing him carelessly onto a stretch of beach.

"Whoa!" he cried out.

The black hole had gotten bigger and was sucking everything towards it. Hearing a noise behind him, Sora turned around to find the giant shadow monster from his dream.

He was starting to think that it hadn't been a dream.

He drove blow after blow at it, using the key shaped blade, which had reappeared in his hands. Finally the creature stumbled back and was pulled into the black hole.

Unfortunately, so was Sora.

**

* * *

**

She saw it getting closer. Katy watched as a pool of darkness slithered under the door and began to crawl towards her. She was helpless now; the blades having vanished moments ago. She simply closed her eyes and let the darkness engulf her, sucking her down into nothingness.

* * *

Donald and Goofy had reached Traverse Town safely and were currently searching for Leon. Goofy just happened to look up and he gasped.

"Look! Stars, two of 'em! They're going out!"

Donald looked up as well and the two of them watched in silence as the two stars flickered and then died out completely.

"C'mon, let's go." Donald said in a quieter tone than usual.

They continued on in silence, wondering if they would ever find who they were looking for.

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**A/N: 5 reviews until the next chapter. So six in total. REVIEW!**


	3. Happy Faces?

"Where's that 'key'?!" Donald exclaimed grumpily.

The two of them, plus Pluto had been walking for hours now, with no sign of anyone they needed to find.

"What about the other person? The Protector?" Goofy asked.

Donald shot him a glare.

"Have you seen something I haven't?"

Goofy shook his head quickly and they continued to walk the cobblestone streets.

"Hey, ya know, maybe we ought to go find Leon." Goofy suggested

Donald nodded and veered to the right. Goofy hesitated, watching as Pluto went in the opposite direction, his nose sniffing the ground.

"Uh, Donald? Ya know, I betcha that…" Goofy began

"Aw, what do you know, you big palooka?" Donald said effectively cutting him off.

Goofy shrugged.

"What do I know? C'mon, Pluto!" He called back to the King's dog, who was occupied with something else.

Or some_one_ else.

**

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**

Sora woke up to someone licking his face.

Not a very pleasant way to be woken up, but considering he wasn't awake enough yet to actually process anything, he just mumbled sleepily.

"What a dream…"

Someone jumped on his chest, startling him out of his half conscious state.

"Ah! This isn't a dream!"

He stood up, noting that the someone that woke him up was actually a dog.

"Where am I?"

He looked down at the dog

"Do _you_ know where we are?"

The dog cocked his ear as though he had heard something and scampered away.

"Hey…!" Sora called out, but the dog soon became a dot in the distance.

He heard something else though.

A soft moan came from somewhere behind him. He turned around and saw a girl lying on the ground, clearly just coming around. He ran over to her and knelt by her side.

"Hey? Hey! Are you alright?"

The girl opened her eyes slowly, squinting in the dim light.

"Ryan?" she asked in a hoarse voice.

"No, my name's Sora."

The girl sat up slowly, her long purple hair flowing behind her.

"Where are we?" she asked, her sea-foam green eyes searching for some sort of answer in his deep blue ones.

"I don't know." He answered truthfully, wishing he could reassure her more.

She groaned and lied back down on the ground.

"Wonderful."

"Are you sure you're okay?" Sora asked, looking her over carefully.

"Yeah, yeah. My head hurts something awful though."

With Sora's help, she climbed to her feet and took a couple of shaky steps forward. Satisfied that she could walk she turned back towards him and gave him a small smile.

"Thanks. My name's Katy by the way. Katy Tannith." She held out her hand and Sora shook it.

"You said you're name was Sora?"

"Yep."

"That's funny. I had a dream last night and someone was telling me that I had to find Sora."

"Well, you found me!" He said grinning.

Katy giggled a little.

The pair of them walked out of the alley and began to talk about the night events.

"So then Riku gets pulled under by the dark stuff, and when I find Kairi, she just disappears!" Sora exclaimed.

"Yeah well at least you're friends might be okay. Ryan got eaten by mutant bunnies from hell."

They were both quiet for a moment, Sora trying to find the right words.

"Maybe he's still okay, I mean, you said he just disappeared right? That's what happened to Kairi."

"You think so?"

"Sure!"

Katy smiled, her mood a bit brighter now as the walked into a large store that had 'Accessory Shop' written above it on a sign.

A blonde man was behind the counter inside.

"Excuse me mister, Can you tell us where we are?" Katy asked

"You're in Traverse Town" The man answered back distractedly.

"Traverse Town?"

"That's what I said isn't it!" He snapped back

Sora frowned.

"Listen gramps--"

"Don't call me gramps, the name's Cid."

"We're looking for our friends Riku, Kairi, and Ryan. Have you seen them around?"

"Not in here I haven't. Town's pretty big though, you should keep looking."

"Alrighty then." Katy said walking towards the door.

"If you kid's still can't find them you can come back here. I don't know how safe it is out there."

"Thanks!" Sora called back as he tried to keep up with Katy.

The pair walked through the giant double doors that led to the Second District and were immediately greeted with a horrible sight. A man came running up the steps, stumbling and falling at their feet. His chest glowed and his heart left his body, mixing with darkness and turning into one of those creatures.

Katy paled.

"MUTANT BUNNY WITH ARMOR! KILL IT! _KILL_ IT!" She shrieked, her blades appearing in her hands.

She ran at the creature slashing at it until it was gone.

"That was--"

Suddenly Sora jumped clear over her head and attacked two more of them that had materialized behind her with his Keyblade.

"You have a magical sword too?!" Katy asked, her eyes widening.

"Yeah, it just sort of appears."

"Mine too!"

"How come you get two of them?" Sora whined.

"Cause mine are less than half the size of your big ass one. And because I'm special."

Sora stuck his tongue out at her and she laughed.

More of the creatures started to materialize and the two of them ran at them, destroying all that they could reach. Some of them dropped small yellow and blue spheres.

"What's that?" Katy asked confused

Sora looked at her funny.

"Munny."

"Really?"

"Yeah, what did you think it was?"

"I don't know. In my world money is either green paper or metal coins."

"Weird." Sora mumbled

Katy rolled her eyes and followed him back to the Accessory Shop.

After Cid reassured them that they're friends would turn up soon, Sora left the shop to find somewhere they could stay the night, while Katy went to the Item Shop next door. As Sora was leaving Cid's a voice called out to him.

"They'll come at you out of nowhere."

Sora turned around, startled to see a tall black haired man with a long scar across his face standing behind him.

"Who are you?!" He demanded

"And they'll keep on coming at you." The man continued

"As long as you continue to wield the Keyblade."

The man pinched the bridge of his nose.

"But why? Why would it choose a kid like you?"

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Sora asked sounding a bit miffed.

"Never mind. Now, let's see that Keyblade."

"What?! There's no way you're getting this!"

The man smirked as though he was hoping Sora would say that.

"Alright. Have it your way." He answered impassively, shouldering his own huge sword.

He leapt towards Sora, narrowly missing the boy's head. Sora brought the blade up and blocked the shot, rolling out of the way. The man continued to swing at him, Sora dodging what he could and hitting him when he had an opening. Finally the man slumped over, exhausted. Sora grinned.

"Now…you're…gonna…you're…gonna…" and then he passed out.

"Aw, you're slipping, Leon." A girl's voice called out from behind the man.

Before he could turn around, a punch was landed to his face, hitting him square in the nose.

"WHAT. DID. YOU. DO?!" Katy's angry voice shrieked as she knelt next to Sora's prone form.

"Easy, kid. We're not gonna hurt him." Leon tried to reason.

"It's too late for that!" Katy yelled, looking Sora over for any life threatening injuries.

When she was satisfied that he was okay, she stood up and scowled.

"I don't care if I don't have my magical blade thingies. If someone doesn't explain to me why he's unconscious right now, I'll beat both of you."

Leon and the girl exchanged glances.

"She's the Protector." The girl muttered to him and he nodded.

"Looks like things are worse that we thought. A lot worse."

After much coaxing, Leon managed to convince Katy to let them take her and the still unconscious Sora to the hotel in the Second District. Katy agreed, mostly because she didn't really think she'd be a match for the both of them, even _with_ her swords. At the hotel, the girl Introduced herself as Yuffie and promised that all would be explained when Sora woke up.

**

* * *

  
**

Meanwhile…

Donald and Goofy were still trying to find Leon, the 'key', and the Protector. They weren't having much luck. As they walked down the alleyway, Goofy looked around nervously.

"Gawrsh, there's nobody here! Sure is spooky."

"Aw, phooey! I'm not scared!" Donald stated.

He felt a tap on his shoulder and cried out, grabbing onto to Goofy for support.

"Excuse me?" A timid voice asked

"Did the King send you?"

They both turned around to see a tall, pretty young woman in a pink dress standing behind them.

**

* * *

  
**

Meanwhile…

Yuffie began to grow impatient waiting for Sora to come around.

"C'mon, lazy bum. Wake up."

Katy rolled her eyes.

"Well if pretty boy over here didn't knock him around. He'd be awake now, wouldn't he?"

Yuffie shushed her and gestured to Sora, who was waking up.

"You okay?" she asked as Sora shook his head to clear it.

"I guess…"

"Those creatures that attacked you are after the Keyblade," Yuffie explained slowly, trying to get Sora to understand the gravity of what she was saying.

"But it's your heart they really want, because you wield the Keyblade."

Sora nodded and smiled up at her.

"I'm so glad that you're okay, Kairi."

Katy slapped her forehead.

"Wonderful. The boy is hallucinating."

Yuffie frowned.

"Kairi? Who are you talking about? _I'm_ the great ninja Yuffie."

"Huh?" Sora said, and blinked confusedly.

"I think you might have overdone it, Squall."

Katy snorted.

"Squall?" she laughed, looking over at Leon.

He shot Yuffie a glare

"That's Leon."

"The Keyblade." Sora said looking over at his weapon where it was resting against the desk.

His eyes then flicked up to Katy and he grinned.

"You're okay!"

"Of course _I'm _okay. _You're_ the one I was worried about." She said, crossing over to sit next to him on the bed. When they were all comfortable, Yuffie continued.

"We had to take the Keyblade away from you to shake off those creatures. It turns out, that's how they were tracking you."

"It was the only way to conceal your heart from them. But it won't work for long."

"What about yours?" Sora asked Katy.

"They're over there." Katy said pointing over to the window ledge.

"The same goes for me."

"It's hard to believe that you two, of all people, are the chosen ones." Leon stated, picking up the Keyblade and giving it a swing. The Keyblade disappeared from Leon's hand and rematerialized into Sora's.

"But I guess beggars can't be choosers."

"Why don't you start making sense?" Sora demanded.

"Yeah, what's going on here?" Katy asked, crossing her arms.

**

* * *

  
**

Meanwhile…

"Okay," The woman, named Aerith started.

"You both know that there are other worlds out there, besides your castle and this town, right?"

"Yeah." Donald said nodding

"But they're supposed to be a secret." Goofy said, covering his mouth with his hands.

"They've been secret, because they've never been connected. Until now."

Aerith looked down at her hands.

"When the heartless came, everything changed."

**

* * *

  
**

Meanwhile…

"The Heartless?" Sora and Katy asked in unison.

"The ones who attacked you remember? Yuffie asked.

"Those without hearts." Leon said in a serious voice.

"The darkness in people's hearts is what attracts them. Yuffie explained.

"And there is darkness in every heart." Leon added.

Katy kept looking from Yuffie to Leon, trying to follow the conversation.

"Can you guys stop finishing each others sentences?! Jeez! If someone was trying to write this down they'd be going nuts!"

All three of them shot her a weird look.

"Just saying." She huffed.

They remained silent for awhile after Katy's outburst. Then Yuffie piped up.

"Hey, have you heard of someone named Ansem?"

**

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**

MEANWHILE…

"Ansem?" Goofy asked.

"He was studying the Heartless. He recorded all of his findings in a very detailed report." Aerith explained.

"Gawrsh, uh, can we see it?"

Aerith shook her head sadly.

"The pages are scattered everywhere."

"Scattered?!" Donald exclaimed

"To many worlds" Aerith said shrugging.

"Oh. Then maybe the King went to find 'em." Goofy said

"Yes. Those were my thoughts exactly."

"Then we've got to find him, quick!"

"Wait!" Donald yelled.

"First we need that 'key'! And the Protector!"

"That's right. The Keyblade, and it's…Keeper if you want to get technical with the legend."

**

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**

**MEANWHILE… (So tiring, lol.)**

"So, this is they key?" Sora asked, studying the Keyblade.

"Exactly." Yuffie said nodding.

"Then what does that make me?" Katy asked.

"You're the Protector or the Keeper. You keep the Keyblade Master safe."

Katy raised an eyebrow and Sora grinned over at her.

"So I'm like his babysitter?"

"Sure, if you want to put it that way."

Katy shrugged.

"I can live with that."

"The Heartless have great fear of the Keyblade." Leon continued

"That's why they'll keep coming after you, no matter what."

"Well, I didn't ask for this. Sora said defensively.

"The Keyblade chooses its master, and it chose you." Yuffie said looking over at Sora.

Sora frowned.

"But, what about Katy? She didn't ask for this either." Sora reasoned. He didn't want his new friend to get hurt helping him.

"That's harder to explain. It's not really clear how the Keeper gets chosen. It just sort of…happens."

"So tough luck, both of you." Leon grumbled.

Sora glared over at him.

"It'll be okay Sora. I'll be fine." Katy tried to reassure him.

"How did all this happen? I remember being in my room…" Sora gasped.

"Wait a minute, what happened to my home? My island? Riku? Kairi?"

"Ryan." Katy whispered, a lone tear falling down her cheek.

"You know what? I really don't know." Leon answered, leaning back against the wall.

Suddenly, there was a rattling noise and one of the Heartless with the armor materialized in the room. The four all sprung into action.

"Yuffie, go!" Leon ordered, moving so she could run out of the room.

Yuffie ran out the door, unknowingly hitting Donald with it as she went.

"Yuffie?" Aerith. Who had been outside with Donald and Goofy, exclaimed, confused as she tore after her friend.

"Sora, Katy, let's go!" Leon said, breaking a window with his sword and jumping out of it.

The two remaining teens looked at each other and shrugged before deciding to take the door.

Meeting Leon at the bottom, the three of them killed wave after wave of heartless before Leon spoke.

"Don't bother with these guys. You have to find where they're coming from."

Katy and Sora ran through the First and Second Districts, following the thicker waves of Heartless. Finally they reached the door to the Third District and went through.

"Split up. You go left, I'll stay right." Sora said, already making to run.

"Sora…" Katy protested. Something inside her being tried to reason with her, telling her not to let her friend go off alone.

"I'll be fine, just go." He insisted.

Katy sighed and nodded, running left and swinging her blades at any Heartless that got in her way. She was met with a dead end and was just about to turn around to go follow Sora, when suddenly something, or rather some_one_ slammed into her, causing her to flip over the balcony. Whoever it was tried to grab her to keep her from falling, but only succeeded in getting Katy to accidently use the extra inertia she had to fling them off with her. This caused a third person to fall, and it was a chorus of yells as all three tumbled to the ground, right on top of Sora, who, despite the impact, managed to keep a hold on the Keyblade.

Katy groaned at the extra weight on top of her, not even processing the awkward situation she was in. The voices of the two people crushing her against Sora's body suddenly cried out in unison.

"The key!"

Then, as though someone had flicked a switch, walls began to form in front of all of the exits to the District and the biggest Heartless they had seen yet, decked out in heavy purple armor fell from the sky.

Katy gulped

"Dude, that is _so_ not a bunny."

As though they had known each other forever, the four began to battle as a unit, each one of them choosing a limb to attack. Katy and Donald, who were shorter, were dismantling the legs, while Sora and Goofy, who were taller and could jump higher, were focusing on the arms. When both sets of appendages were gone, the party all began to hack and slash at the torso until the beast was no more. It clattered to the ground, and a large heart was released from it into the sky.

**

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**

"So, you were looking for us?" Sora asked Donald and Goofy after the Guard Armor had been defeated.

The two nodded vigorously.

"They too have been seeking the wielder of the Keyblade and his Protector." Leon said.

Katy couldn't help but wonder where he and Yuffie had been during their epic battle.

"Hey, why don't the two of you come with us? We can go to other worlds on out vessel." Goofy asked.

Sora looked over at Katy sadly.

"I wonder if we could find our friends."

"Of course." Donald reassured them.

The two looked up, hopefully.

"Are you sure?" Goofy whispered to Donald.

"Who knows, but we need them to come with us to help find the King." Donald hissed back.

Leon stepped forward.

"Sora, Katy, go with them. Especially if you want to find your friends."

"Yeah, I guess." Sora said, looking at the floor again.

For the second time that night, a tear ran down Katy's face.

"But you can't come along looking like that. Understand?" Donald began.

"No frowning. No sad face. Okay?"

"Yeah! You gotta look funny, like us!" Goofy interjected.

Donald pushed him away.

"This boat runs on happy faces!"

Katy couldn't help but giggle and Donald and Goofy smiled over at her. Sora however, continued to look down.

"Happy?"

They all looked over at him, waiting for the verdict.

Suddenly, he looked up with the most forced smile Katy had ever seen on a face, which sent her into hysterics.

"Oh. My. God. PRICELESS! Someone get me a camera! No, wait!"

She took her own camera out of the backpack that had been on her when she got sucked into the darkness and she quickly snapped a picture of Sora.

By this time Donald and Goofy were laughing too.

"That's one funny face!" Goofy exclaimed, trying not to topple over.

"Okay, why not? I'll go with you guys." Sora decided.

He looked back over at Katy.

"It's okay with you right?"

She shrugged.

"You're the Keyblade Master. I go where you go."

"Donald Duck." Donald introduced himself, extending his hand.

"Name's Goofy." Goofy did the same, putting his hand on top of Donald's.

"Katy." Katy said, adding her hand to the mix.

"I'm Sora." Sora finished, putting his hand on top.

"All for one, and one for all!" Goofy exclaimed and the party laughed.

Leon, Aerith, Yuffie and Cid approached them, giving Sora and Katy 100 munny each. Donald also gave Sora and Katy the ability to use magic and granted them a fire spell. The four stocked up on supplies and loaded up the Gummi ship, setting off for the closest world. For the first time since they all arrived there, things were looking up.

Soon though, they would find that trouble was brewing elsewhere.

**

* * *

  
**

"Those little squirts took down that Heartless! Who would've thought it?" A figure from the shadows in a secret location exclaimed.

"Such is the power of the Keyblade and the Keeper's Keys. The children's strength is not their own." Another figure added

"Why don't we turn them both into Heartless? That'll settle things quick enough." Yet another villain inquired.

"And the brats' friends are the King's lackeys. Swoggle me eyes, they're all bilge rats by the look of them." Another said, his voice heavily accented.

"You're no prize yourself." A more arrogant voice shot back.

"Shut up!" The accented voice shot back.

"Enough!" A female voice that dripped with authority called out.

"The Keyblade had chosen him. And the Keyblade Master's Keeper has been revealed as well. Will they be the ones to conquer the darkness? Or will the darkness swallow them? Either way, they could be quite useful." The voice continued, cackling before fading away completely.


	4. The Mysterious Land of Wonder

**Authors Note****- I'm sorry for my lack of updates. I've been trying my very hardest to update, but unfortunately, I'm failing Chemistry and dangerously close to failing Geometry, so my usual slacking off from school in order to focus on more important things (Fanfiction, Zelda, T.V, Zelda) has been nonexistent :( . Sucks for me, right? Anyway…please read and review!**

Disclaimer- I don't own anything belonging to Kingdom Hearts. Just Katy, but hey, she's pretty awesome :)

**

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**

**Chapter 4**

After a days ride on the Gummi Ship, a large land mass become visible.

"Civilization! Huzzah!" Katy exclaimed, bouncing up and down happily in her seat.

"Stop that! You're shaking the ship!" Donald scolded, trying to keep them on course.

"Sora tried to hide a laugh, but failed miserably. Katy stuck her tongue out at him.

"Don't hate. I like to bounce, its fun."

"Sure, sure." Sora said with a wave of his hand.

When they finally got close enough to land, the four got out of the ship.

"So, where are we?" Goofy asked, looking over at Donald.

"Wonderland." Donald answered, looking around.

Before they knew it, the ground seemed to open up and they were floating slowly down into what looked like a tunnel.

When they finally landed, Katy broke the silence.

"Okay, did anyone else think that was weird?"

The others just shrugged and she crossed her arms over her chest, mumbling something about unrealistic freaks, which caused Donald to shoot her a glare.

A mysterious ticking noise began to fill the tunnel they were in and they all cocked their heads to listen.

"What is that?" Sora asked

"Maybe it's a pipe bomb." Katy giggled.

Sora looked at her funny.

"What's that?"

Katy rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"Nothing you need to worry about Sora, dearest."

Goofy and Donald laughed at this, but stopped when the source of the ticking was revealed.

A white rabbit wearing a red coat and a tiny pair of glasses was holding a clock and running as fast as it possibly could down the tunnel, ranting to itself.

"Oh, my fur and whiskers! I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!"

The four watched the frazzled rabbit strangely as he continued to run and talk to himself. Exchanging glances, they followed him.

"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! I'm here, I should be there!"

Katy leaned over and whispered into Sora's ear.

"A rhyming, ranting, rabbit. What will they think of next?"

Sora snickered.

"I'm late, I'm late, I'm late! The Queen, she'll have my head for sure!"

Finally, the rabbit rounded the corner and all became silent.

The party turned the corner themselves after a second's hesitation, only to face a large brown door, which opened to reveal a smaller, blue door, which opened to reveal and even smaller red door, which opened to finally reveal a very strange looking room.

And there was the rabbit again, looking much smaller now, scampering across the room and going through, yet another, very small door.

"Apparently, whoever built this place had a thing for doors." Katy mumbled to herself as she watched Sora kneel in front of the ridiculously tiny wooden door.

"How'd he get so small?"

And then, the freaking doorknob answered him.

"No, _you're_ simply too big."

The four jumped back.

"It talks!" Donald exclaimed.

"No shit." Katy answered.

The doorknob yawned.

"Must you be so loud? You woke me up."

Goofy smiled and waved at it.

"Good morning!"

"Good night! I need a bit more sleep." The doorknob said, its eyes drooping.

"Wait!" Sora exclaimed, leaning forward until he was eye level with it.

"What do we have to do to grow small?"

Katy looked over at him, her mouth hanging open.

"Dude, you're having a conversation with a DOORKNOB!"

Donald glared at her and she put her hands up in surrender.

"Just saying!"

The doorknob yawned again.

"Why don't you try the bottle over there?"

The party turned around and watched as a flat, circle design that had been on the ground became 3-D, turning into a table with two bottles on it, one red and one blue.

They looked back over at the doorknob, who was sleeping soundly again.

"Well this is great! How do we know which bottle to drink?" Katy asked, leaning on a bed that was next to the talking doorknobs door.

The bed suddenly shot back into the wall, becoming part of it just like the table had been, revealing a small opening in the wall.

"Well that was convenient." Katy mumbled as Sora walked over to the table.

"I think we should try the red one." He stated, picking it up, getting ready to drink it.

The same urgent feeling she had back in Traverse Town when Sora told them to split up was resurfacing. It was telling her not to let him drink the contents of the bottle.

"No!" She yelled, taking it away from him.

"What's with you?" He asked, annoyed.

"It's the blue one, trust me."

Sora cocked an eyebrow at her but took the blue bottle and drank from it, shrinking down to the size that the rabbit had been.

One by one, the other three drank and then they were all mini.

"Good call." Sora told her, giving her a smile.

They walked through the previously concealed opening, considering it didn't look like the doorknob was waking up any time soon, and emerged in front of a large castle.

The white rabbit was standing on top of a raised platform, and was blowing into a trumpet.

"Court is now in session!"

A tiny blonde girl in a blue dress, who was apparently the one being tried, covered her mouth with he hand.

"I'm on trial? But why?" She said in a soft voice with an English accent.

The rabbit took a deep breath before introducing the so called judge.

"He Majesty, the Queen of Hearts, presides!"

The Queen of Hearts leaned over the bench and glared at the blonde.

"This girl is the culprit. There's no doubt about it. And the reason is…"

She gave a dramatic pause before yelling;

"BECAUSE I SAY SO, THAT'S WHY!"

"That is so unfair!" The girl protested.

"Have you anything to say in your defense?" The Queen asked, impatiently.

"Of course! I've done absolutely nothing wrong! You may be Queen, but I'm afraid that doesn't give you the right to be so…so mean!"

"More rhyming." Katy muttered and Sora snickered again

"Silence! You DARE defy me?" She hollered, causing the girl to recoil.

"Hey, guys, we should help her out." Sora said.

"Yeah, this doesn't look like it's going to swing her way." Katy agreed.

"Yeah but the--" Donald started. Goofy cut him off

"We're outsiders, so wouldn't that be muddling?" He reasoned.

"Meddling!" Donald corrected

"Oh yeah, and that's against the rules."

"Rules, shmules." Katy answered shaking her head and turning back to watch the sad excuse for a trial.

"The court finds the defendant…GUILTY A CHARGED! For the crimes of assault and attempted theft of my heart…"

Sora gasped.

"OFF WITH HER HEAD!" The surrounding guards, who were dressed up as playing cards, unsheathed their axes.

"No, no! Oh, please!"The girl pleaded, frightened.

"Hold it right there!" Sora called out, running toward the girl and the Queen.

"Who are you? How dare you interfere with my court?" The queen yelled.

"Excuse me, but we know who the real culprit is." Sora said, a little less confident now.

"Uh huh. It's the Heartl--" Goofy covered his mouth before he could finish.

"Anyway, she's not the one you're looking for."

"That's nonsense! Have you any proof?" The Queen demanded, tapping her fingers on the bench impatiently.

"Uh…" Sora trailed off.

It had been decided. The girl, whose name they had found out to be Alice, was to be locked up until they could find proof proving her innocence. They trudged into the Lotus Forest and Katy began to whine.

"Great, just great. Now on TOP of killing Heartless and trying to find our friends, we have to go on a wild goose chase for evidence of something that the stupid Queen and her cards and that pesky rabbit should already know! I mean come on! The Heartless don't even look remotely like Alice. Common sense people, that's all I'm asking."

She finished her tirade and found that Donald and Goofy were scouting the area and Sora was snickering.

"Pesky rabbit?"

"Is that the only thing you got out of that?"

"Pretty much."

Katy rumpled his hair.

"You hopeless, hopeless boy." She said endearingly, walking toward the back of the forest.

Without warning, she screamed.

There in front of her was the grinning head of a pink and purple striped cat.

"Poor Alice! About to lose her head for a crime she didn't even commit." It said, bouncing in place.

Sora and the others came up behind her, also gaping at the cat.

"Do you know anything?" Katy asked.

"I know many things. Know this, there are three pieces of evidence that will prove Alice's innocence. Two are a cinch to find the other…well not so much."

"How do we know we can trust you?" Sora asked, accusingly.

"To trust or not to trust? I trust you'll decide!" The cat said.

And then it was gone.

"Okay… Creeeeeeeepy." Katy said shivering.

The party then began to wander around the Lotus forest. Deciding to split up, Donald and Goofy searched the ground level, while Sora and Katy risked there lives searching the treetops.

"Please explain to me why the talking animals got the safe job?" Katy huffed, jumping to the low canopy of trees that Sora was currently occupying. She gave a shriek as she fell short, Sora grabbing her wrist just in time.

"Thanks for that."

"No problem."

The pair continued in silence until Sora pointed out an opening in the trees. They entered and quickly realized that they were back in the bizarre room. Except something was different…

"Is it just me, or is the room upside-down?" Katy asked, looking around nervously.

"No, it's upside-down."

"Okay, good! That means I'm not going crazy."

"Of course not…you're already ARE crazy."

Katy slapped him upside the head and brushed past him. This seemed to trigger some sort of alarm and suddenly the room was flooded with heartless.

**

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**

"OH MY GOD! WHY WON'T THE FLYING PIXIE ONES DIE!?" Katy shrieked, as one lone Heartless flitted around her head.

"You're very hostile aren't you?" Sora asked, cocking an eyebrow as he watched her struggle.

Finally disposing of the pixie-heartless, Katy looked over at him with disbelief

"Dude, you're JUST getting that?"

Sora shrugged and joined her on the other side of the room, where she was examining something on a shelf.

"The Heartless left claw marks…does that count as evidence? "

"It's worth a shot." Sora shrugged.

Katy took her camera out of her bag and snapped a picture. After it developed fully, the creepy cat appeared again.

"Well, look what you found." It said, lounging in mid-air.

"Now we can prove Alice's innocence." Sora said, happily

"Don't be so sure."

"What do you mean?"

"What do I mean? Here, take this."

Sora and Katy's blades began to glow and the cat disappeared.

"What did it do?"

A burst of freezing snow came out of Sora's Keyblade.

"Cool…literally." Katy said, trying hers out.

The two of them went back to the Queens castle, meeting up with Donald and Goofy on the way. Evidence in hand. They presented Katy's photograph to the cards, along with a Heartless' antenna and a piece of Heartless armor courtesy of Donald and Goofy. The guards added some of the Queen's evidence into the mix and explained a completely unethical method about how it was going to be processed.

"You, girl! Pick one piece of evidence to present!"

Katy went timidly over to the four boxes and opened one. Apparently, their evidence had turned into actual heartless, because an armored one popped out of the box.

"What IS that?!" The queen exclaimed.

"There you go. Alice is innocent." Sora said smugly.

The Queen, who apparently didn't like to lose, was fuming. Long story short…she sicked her cards on them.

**

* * *

  
**

Once they finally realized that they should be attacking the gear tower instead of the playing cards with the giant axes, the battle was quite easy. The downside, Alice disappeared. Needless to say, Katy was not a happy camper…

"HOW, IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS GOOD AND HOLY IN THE WORLD DID SHE GET OUT?!"

Sora sighed and tuned out his friends ranting, knowing (praying) that it would be over soon.

"ALL I HAVE TO SAY IS THAT IF WE FIND HER AND SHE'S NOT CRITICALLY INJURED OR DEAD I WANT THOSE FOUR HOURS OF MY LIFE BACK!" Katy finished, breathing hard.

All was silent for awhile…until Sora opened his mouth

"We weren't looking for evidence for four hours…it was only like twenty minutes."

Katy opened her mouth to argue again, just as they entered the bizarre room (right side up this time) and the Cheshire Cat greeted them.

Katy tuned out his riddle-ridden words, muttering about talking animals and their tendency to interrupt. She almost wished she had been listening when she saw the giant Heartless that was walking on (or made of?) stilts. It was also holding two giant juggling swords…that were on fire.

Once Katy realized that the thing was a lot less deadly without its flaming sticks of death, her job was to stand on a bookshelf in the corner and extinguish them. Occasionally, she would beat the crap out of it as well, but the others weren't complaining.

By the time it was finally dead, they were all exhausted. Katy threw herself to the floor and stared blankly at the ceiling, panting. Sora looked like he was going to join her until the annoying talking doorknob spoke again.

"What's all the racket?! Can't a doorknob get any sleep?"

"I'm not even going to dignify that with a response." Katy said.

The doorknob yawned, causing a chain reaction. A weird shimmery light sparkled in its mouth, (ew!) causing Sora to lean forward, which made the Keyblade jerk towards the sparkly light, causing a blue, laser light to shoot out of the Keyblade. A small clicking sound sounded throughout the room, and then all was silent.

"Sounds like something closed." Goofy said.

They all established that Wonderland had been closed off from the Heartless…for the time being anyway

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**A/N****- Anyone who gets the YouTube video I reference to in here gets a cookie :) !!!!!**


	5. The Ridiculously Long Deep Jungle

**Authors Note****: Thank you for the lovely reviews! Tell your friends about how much you love my story! Just kidding, sort of: D. Don't get used to the daily updates, but there should be at least three more chapters not including this one up this week. I have some extra time :) I also want to make it known that I'm not against PETA in any way and I hope no one takes offence to the reference in here... Deep Jungle is divided into two parts, so this is part one. Enjoy!!!**

Disclaimer- I don't own anything belonging to Kingdom Hearts. Just Katy and Ryan.

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Chapter 5

One of Katy's biggest fears (besides mutant hell bunnies and waking up before noon) was heights. She HATED them. It all started when Kyle Fletcher pushed her off the monkey bars in 1st grade. She remembered falling five feet down and landing in the sandbox with a sickening crack. Even with her broken arm, she was able to punch him in the nose, effectively breaking it. Kyle had never bothered her again, and in her book they were even, except for Katy's traumatizing fear of heights (although, she had probably given Fletcher a phobia of angry little girls, but that was beside the point.) Now, though as she was plummeting what had to be at least 150 feet towards the ground, she decided that if she ever saw Kyle Fletcher again, she would kiss him. Those 5 feet off the monkey bars had been a cake walk compared to this. Screaming bloody murder as the ground rushed up to meet her, she decided that once again, the blame would have to fall toward the talking animals. Donald and Goofy were living proof why animals didn't talk on Earth. It all started about three days after they left Wonderland…

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They had been flying through space for about two days, three? I didn't matter really, there wasn't much to do when you're in a tiny ship trying to dodge Heartless and look for landmasses and Katy was already becoming impatient. Since Donald had prohibited all forms of bouncing, she had decided that reciting the alphabet was a good alternative.

"Abcdefg…"

"I AM SO BORED!" Sora whined eyes darting around the ship, looking for something to entertain himself with.

"Hijk…"

Everyone ignored Sora's protesting, but Donald started to grit his teeth at Katy's singing.

"Lmnop…"

"Hey look! Down there!"

There was a huge dark chunk of what looked like forest almost directly below them. It was clear that Donald had no intention of landing.

"Humph! The King would never stop at a place like _that_." Donald said haughtily.

"But our friends could be down there!" Sora exclaimed.

"Forget it!"

"Give me the wheel!"

"WHAT?!"

Katy, who had paused in her singing to look at the giant green blob of land, continued, louder this time in order to be heard over the sounds of fighting.

"QRSTUV…"

Sora had grabbed hold of the wheel and was dumping altitude while trying to push Donald away from him.

In the middle of all this, Goofy was looking quite serene and was humming the alphabet along with Katy.

"**WXY AND Z…"**

"WOULD YOU SHUT THE HELL UP?!" Sora whirled around and screamed at her.

As he did so, he accidentally hit a button and suddenly they were ejected from the ship and were free-falling out of the sky. Luckily, they were already in the world's atmosphere, so their heads exploding from lack of oxygen wouldn't be a problem, but Katy's fear of heights was. She was having a panic attack in mid-air which was triggering her asthma so now she was alternating between screaming and coughing. There was a crashing sound as Sora, who was about six feet below her, fell through a wooden structure. Katy screamed louder (which caused her to cough more) as she fell through the opening Sora had left, and landed, as if Fate hadn't screwed with her life enough, on top of Sora, who was thankfully breathing. She couldn't say the same for herself though. She was hacking up a lung and it was freaking her companion out.

"Katy, are you okay?" he asked once he managed to carefully push her off of him.

She couldn't answer; any air that she managed to force into her lungs was being used to cough.

"Katy seriously, this isn't funny."

She managed to shoot Sora a glare. She wasn't finding his ignorance very funny either. She pointed to her bag, which had landed a couple of feet away from them. Sora opened it and frantically searched through the contents while Katy prayed that he knew what an inhaler looked like. Apparently he did, because when he found it, he held it up triumphantly (dramatically) before he handed it do her. Katy took a few drags off of it, feeling her chest loosen up and the oxygen pass more easily through it.

"Thanks." She croaked out, her voice hoarse.

"Don't worry about it." Sora said looking her over

"You okay?"

"I think my fear of heights got a million times worse, but other than that I think I'm good."

"Sorry for yelling at you before, you know on the ship."

"Eh, it's okay. God knows I can be obnoxious sometimes…scratch that _all_ the time."

Sora laughed.

"Maybe not _all_ the time… Just the majority of it, but hey, it keeps things interesting."

"Why thank you."

They both laughed and picked themselves up off the floor, looking around the building they were in.

"Where are we?" Sora wondered aloud.

"Dunno, but it looks like a giant tree house."

"Where do you think Donald and Goofy are?"

Katy shrugged.

"They're probably around. I hope they're okay…no matter how annoying those talking animals are…they're growing on me."

"Yeah, but they can be a bit stubborn sometimes."

"_Donald_ can be stubborn… me and Goofy were singing the alphabet and watching the two of you fight, which was pretty entertaining until you expelled us from the ship." Katy said, shooting Sora a playful glare.

The teens laughed at their own expense, but stopped abruptly when they heard something approaching.

And then there was a giant leopard attacking them and Katy was trying to fight it back without actually hurting it, because lets face it, the Heartless were evil, darkness, imp…_things._ The leopard was an actual animal, and while Katy didn't have a PETA obsession, she didn't really want to cause it any permanent damage. It wasn't until it went to rip Sora's throat out that Katy actually put her all into it. Cutting the cat off mid leap, she managed to deter its efforts, but wound up being taken down herself. The last thing she remembered was her head smacking into a very hard, very sharp object behind her. Then everything went black.

* * *

**Sora POV**

I had my eyes screwed shut from the time that the leopard jumped at me up until I heard a loud crash. I opened one eye gingerly to see Katy on the ground looking pretty unconscious and the giant cat advancing on me. I braced myself for the impact but it never came. Instead a guy, who obviously had gone native considering the spear he was holding and his all around appearance, slid down from the rafters and fought the huge animal back until it disappeared outside. The man turned to me and spoke in butchered English.

"Sabor, danger."

"Um…thank you." I said back.

"Thank you." The man repeated slowly.

"So…what is this place?"

"This place, this place."

I was a little more than freaked out now and I knew that my facial expression was probably hilarious.

"Okaaaay."

Then I remembered that Katy was lying unconscious on the floor. I raced over to her, making sure that she was still alive. Sighing in relief, I turned back to the guy.

"Where did the others go?"

No answer.

"Look, I got separated from my friends. Have you seen them?"

STILL no answer. I was starting to get ticked off. I had no idea where we were and Katy most likely needed medical attention.

"FRIENDS." I said slowly, drawing the word out.

"Friends." He repeated. Freaking finally.

"Right! My friends! There's two of em'. The loud one is Don--"

I stopped mid sentence, remembering how I wasn't exactly on good terms with Donald and Goofy right now. Well, Donald anyway. I decided that since mine and Katy's friends were second on their list, then they would be second on mine. Meanwhile, the guy was looking at me expectantly.

"You know what? Never mind. We're looking for our friends Riku, Kari, and Ryan." I said slowly, deciding to add Ryan's name in as well. Katy was really worried about him, and I didn't want to tell her that I was pretty sure he was gone, despite what I told her.

"Riku, Kairi, Ryan…friends?" The guy repeated.

"Yeah." I said, and looking behind him, I could swear I saw Kairi.

"Friends here."

"Really?!" I asked.

Then he said something that didn't sound distinctly human.

"Uh, what?"

He repeated it but I still wasn't getting it.

"Uh...I don't understand, but show me! Take me to Riku, Kairi, and Ryan."

He glanced over to Katy.

"This is Katy. She's hurt. She needs help."

"Katy, help."

"Yes, she needs help." I sighed. This was getting really old.

"Tarzan." He said pointing to himself.

"Tarzan. I'm Sora." I said back.

Without another word, Tarzan picked up Katy and took off. I followed him, praying that he understood the majority of what I said.

**

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**

Meanwhile…

Donald and Goofy woke up in the middle of a clearing which seemed to be in the middle of a vast jungle.

"Gawrsh, where are we?"

He received no response from his comrade, but continued to voice his concern.

"I sure hope Sora and Katy are okay."

"Aw, who needs them? We can find the King without them." Donald fumed while feeling around for his hat.

The pair got up and were about to start walking when they heard a rustle from the nearby trees. Emerging from said trees was a rather large man holding a rather large gun.

**

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**

**Sora POV**

I followed Tarzan through the jungle trying really, _really_ hard not to call out every time he performed some death defying stunt that could get him and Katy killed. Finally, we got to a campsite located in a rather large clearing. Looking around, I was happy to see some modern stuff was present. Maybe there were people here that were easier to understand and could help Katy. I followed Tarzan into a tent where a young woman was standing with her back to us.

"Jane!" Tarzan called out.

The woman whipped around and her eyes widened when she saw Katy. Composing herself quickly, she pointed over to a cot in the corner.

"Put her down there."

Tarzan obliged while Jane filled a bucket with water and took a first aid kit off a shelf.

"Who are you?" She asked me as she opened the first aid kit and began to tend to Katy.

"I'm Sora."

"Oh, so you speak English!" She exclaimed, sounding a bit relieved.

"So you're obviously not related to Tarzan."

"Um…no."

_'Gee, do I _look_ like I'm related to him? No I know what Katy meant about common sense'_

"What happened to her? Your friend, I presume?"

"We were attacked by this leopard. Sabor, I think? Katy stopped it from tearing my head off, but she hit her head on something."

"Mmhm. There's a bit of blood, but she should be fine so long as the cut doesn't get infected."

I sighed relieved and we sat in silence as Jane cleaned out the cut on Katy's head.

"So what are the pair of you doing here? Are you studying the gorillas?"

Before I could say anything, a voice from behind me answered.

"Highly doubtful." A guy decked out in safari garb said in a tired drawl. Behind him were Donald and Goofy.

"Guys!"

I ran towards them, glad they were okay. Then I remembered I was supposed to be mad and stopped mid-step, crossing my arms and looking away.

"A circus of clowns, not much use for hunting gorillas."

"Mr. Clayton!" Jane exclaimed

"We're studying them, not hunting them! This is research!"

Clayton either didn't hear, or pretended not to as he walked away. Jane sighed and smiled over at us kindly.

"Well, the more the merrier. Do make yourselves at home."

"Well, anyway, I'm staying!" I said at the same time as Donald.

"What?" I yelled in disbelief. He'd been so hell bent on not even landing before.

"Look what we found!" Goofy exclaimed.

It was a piece of gummy like the kind their ship was made out of.

"So the King _was _here!" I said smugly.

Donald sighed and nodded.

After we put our differences aside and Jane assured us that she would take care of Katy while we were gone, we decided to look around for our friends and find the slides Jane mentioned. I sighed to myself. It was going to be a looooong couple of days.

* * *

**A/N****: Kyle Fletcher IS a real person and yes, he did push me off the monkey bars In first grade causing me to break my arm and have a fear of heights. He claims he did it because he wanted to see if I could fly. Such a smart boy… REVIEW!!!! **


	6. STILL in the Jungle? Blame the Gorillas

**Authors Note:** **Deep Jungle Part 2!!!!! Ugh, I hated this level, it was too long and had too many cut scenes. It was also a pain in the ass to write and I'm grateful that I'm finished :) Enjoy!!!**

Disclaimer: I don't own anything belonging to Kingdom Hearts. Just Katy and Ryan.

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Chapter 6

Usually, when one wakes up with a killer headache, the first thought that comes to mind is '_what the hell happened last night?" _That was along the lines of what Katy was thinking…except with many more profanities.

"How do you feel?" said a voice with an English accent.

Katy was immediately reminded of Alice and the wasted four hours (twenty minutes) of her life. She sat up and opened her mouth to give the little apron wearing, un-birthday celebrating, time stealing girl a piece of her mind, when she realized that it was not Alice that was speaking to her, but a different English person entirely. She groaned, half because of the pain in her head and half because of the disappointment at not getting to chew out the little blonde twit, and fell back down onto the bed she had been lying on.

"Like I got hit by a speeding truck."

"Mmhm, well, concussions can do that to you."

"I have a concussion?"

"Had a concussion. Your head is much better now and your pupils aren't dilated anymore so you should be good as new as soon as the headache goes away."

"Thank you." She said sincerely, giving the woman a rare genuine smile

"It's no trouble. I'm Jane Porter."

"Katy. Katy Tannith."

Jane held out her hand and Katy shook it.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Katy Tannith."

"Likewise."

Jane smiled warmly at her as she rose from her seat beside the cot and began tidying up the tent.

"Your friend, Sora, was worried sick about you. He said that Sabor attacked you?"

"Is Sabor a giant leopard?"

Jane laughed and nodded.

"Then yes. That's exactly what happened."

"He said that you did a rather good job of saving his life. You must be very brave."

Katy blushed at the compliment and began to play with the frayed edges of the blanket covering her.

"I couldn't just let him get eaten. Besides it's kind of my job."

"Your job? I don't think I'm following."

Katy took a deep breath and began to explain the story of the Keyblade Master and the Protector to Jane. When she was finished the older woman smiled sadly at her.

"It sounds like you're a long way from home."

"That's an understatement. Besides, I'm pretty sure my world was destroyed when the Heartless took over."

"You shouldn't give up hope; it could still be out there."

"Maybe." Katy said not convinced.

"So tell me about the friends you're looking for."

"Kairi, Ryan, and Riku?"

"Yes, those were their names."

"Oh, well I don't know much about Riku and Kairi, they're Sora's friends. Ryan though, Ryan is my best friend in the whole world. He's like the big brother I always wish I had."

"What happened to him?"

"H-he was trying to protect me, and they, the Heartless, they attacked him. I don't know if…I mean, he was yelling so loud and I just sat there screaming. I didn't…I couldn't…" Katy tripped over words trying to hold back tears.

"If anything happened to him, it's my fault. They were looking for me and I went to find him because I didn't feel like dealing with my mother."

Jane placed a hand on her shoulder.

"If you hadn't gone there, don't you think the Heartless would have found you?"

Katy didn't have an answer for her.

"It all worked out for the best I think…and I'm sure Ryan is or will be fine."

Katy sighed and nodded. She began to feel like something was missing. Frowning, she realized what it was.

"Where's Sora and the talk—Donald and Goofy?" Katy asked looking around.

"Oh! Mr. Clayton took them to the gorillas. That's where Tarzan thinks your friends are."

Katy's jaw almost fell to the floor.

"WHAT? They just LEFT? To find…you mean Riku, Kairi, and Ryan?"

Jane nodded, looking worried.

"How long was I out?!"

"About a day and a half." Jane confessed.

Katy gaped at her, opening and closing her mouth in a way that probably resembled a fish.

"So he's been out there, for two days, looking for our friends."

"Is that bad?"

Katy jumped up, ignoring the pain in her head and began to pace. That feeling that she got whenever someone or something threatened Sora was back and seemed to be gnawing at her insides, telling her to go find him. She knew that she didn't stand a chance. The jungle looked big from _space_; she'd never be able to find Sora. She pushed the feeling down, praying that nothing would happen to him.

After she calmed down, Katy went outside the tent and wandered aimlessly through the campsite. While she was looking at a table cluttered with vials and test tubes, she began to feel like someone was watching her. Turning around, she saw a mushroom. It had the Heartless insignia on it, so she drew her blade slowly, not wanting it to attack. It became clear though, that it wasn't going to hurt her. Instead it seemed to be playing charades with her. It would act out certain motions and she would use the magic spell that it was asking for. It kept her entertained for about an hour until the mushroom disappeared suddenly and without warning. Katy looked around, puzzled until she heard a voice cry out.

"You're okay!"

She whipped around just in time to catch herself as Sora threw his arms around her.

"Nice to see you too." She said, patting the top of his head awkwardly, all irritation towards him leaving her forgotten.

As they walked back to the tent, Sora told her what happened while she was unconscious. Apparently Tarzan had tried to take them to the gorillas and Mr. Clayton had tried to shoot one. Jane was NOT amused.

"How could you DO such a thing?!" She exclaimed.

"Now, Miss. Porter, as I told you I was not aiming at the gorilla."

Katy snorted.

"Yes. It was the ever so elusive phantom snake."

"You are not to go near the gorillas again!" Jane said firmly.

"All because of one mishap? Come, now…" Mr. Clayton tried to reason.

He soon realized he could not win and left the tent quite angry.

Then a gunshot echoed through the campsite.

Katy ran outside with Sora and the others to find that the heartless had finally made an appearance…and what do you know! They looked like monkeys! They were also surrounding a rather confused looking gorilla. The party fought their way through the different levels of the jungle, killing more heartless and helping more gorillas. They finally ended up in a clearing where they found Clayton pointing his gun at a pack of gorillas.

"No!" Sora called out.

Startled, Clayton looked away and the animals were able to get away unharmed.

"Clayton!" Sora yelled out, angry at the hunter.

"Not Clayton." Tarzan said firmly

Katy saw it too; it was clear that Clayton was not himself. He'd been consumed by darkness…and he probably didn't even know it. He pointed his gun at them and they had no choice but to fight him. Suddenly, the cliff behind him seemed to blow up. Looking around, Katy saw nothing that could have caused it. Tarzan ran forward to try and get at Clayton, but an invisible force pushed him back. Then things started to get sketchy. Clayton seemed to be floating. Sora and Katy looked at each other before shrugging and rushing into the battle without knowing what they were really fighting. Finally, Katy saw…

"HOLY SHIT…IS THAT WHAT I THINK IT IS?!"

Clayton was sitting on a giant chameleon.

Katy just stood there, dumbstruck; in fact, she wouldn't be surprised if her face had gone fishy again. She jerked back to attention when one of the monkey-Heartless bit her arm rather hard and was apparently trying to tear her arm off.

"OW!!!! YOU... FREAKING…LITTLE…MONKEY…WHY...WON'T...YOU...DIE!!!!!" She shrieked, hacking at it between words until it was finally destroyed.

When she was done beheading the flesh-eating heartless, she heard Clayton cry out. He stumbled back, clutching his side. As he steadied himself he aimed the gun directly at Katy. He fired the shot just as the giant chameleon fell on top of him. Katy stood frozen, watching as the bullet seemed to come at her in slow motion. It all happened so fast. One second her life was flashing in front of her eyes and the next she was on the ground with Sora on top of her. She blinked confusedly before grinning.

"We have to stop falling like this. People are gonna start talking."

Sora blushed and stood, pulling her up with him.

"Yeah, well…I didn't see you moving out of the way."

"Yeah, Thanks for that. I was kind of stuck…" Katy trailed off looking at the ground, silently contemplating.

Then she looked up and kissed him lightly on the cheek.

"Now we're even." She said, turning to follow Tarzan and leaving Sora to stand there and blush like an idiot just like she knew he would.

**

* * *

**It was official. Katy's fear of heights had turned into a God damn phobia. Not only had she fell forty feet AT LEAST, but a freaking gorilla had thrown her the forty feet. So not only was she scared of falling down…she was also pretty freaked about falling up.

"I am never going to get over this. I'm scarred for life now." Katy babbled as they followed Tarzan to the gorilla's nesting ground which they had finally been permitted to see.

They ended up in a cavern. It was beautiful really; you could hear the waterfalls echoing from above. There was something hidden in the trees. Just like in Wonderland, The outline of the world's keyhole glistened against the cavern wall. Sora sealed it and they lingered there for a little longer. Everything was peaceful here and Katy could almost pretend that everything was okay. Before they left, Donald found a strange gummi, so a trip to traverse town was in their future. The party trudged over to the Gummi ship and began to board.

"Katy, come on!" Sora called.

"Just a second!" She called back.

She ran up to Jane and threw her arms around her. The English woman was surprised at the action but she hugged her back just the same.

"Thank you… for helping me, for listening to me rant, for everything."

Jane smiled.

"You're quite welcome. Good luck finding your friend Katy Tannith, I hope when you do you can both go back home."

Katy grinned and ran back to the ship. She hoped so too, and right now, with everyone calm and happy, hope was enough.

**

* * *

  
**

"What drew the Heartless to that world?" A man's voice asked.

"The hunter lured them there." A woman's voice answered back tiredly, as though she had answered the question before.

"It was his lust for power that was the bait." She continued,

"But it seems the bait was too tasty for his own good."

"Yeah, he got chomped instead." Another voice cackled

"A weak hearted fool like him stood no chance against the Heartless." Another man voiced

"But the boy is a problem," he continued. "He found one of the Keyholes."

"Fear not, it will take him ages to find the rest." The woman said, tiredness creeping into her voice once more. It was as though she was bored waiting. She wanted something to happen.

"Besides, he remains blissfully unaware of our other plan." She said slyly.

"Yes, the princesses." Yet another man voiced.

"Yes." The woman said smugly

"They are falling into our hands one by one."

She looked to her left and smirked

"Speaking of which…"

A very confused and scared looking Alice was pushed into the room. Looking around at the villains surrounding her, she knew that whatever was going on here would not fare well for her.

**

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Please review??? It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside :D  
**


	7. Harry Potter and The Icky Colliseum

**Authors Note****: Olympus Coliseum everyone! In my opinion, the most pointless world in the game! I put my own twist in is so it's more interesting than everyone just fighting Heartless. Enjoy!**

Disclaimer: I don't own anything recognizable. Just Katy and Ryan.

**

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**

Chapter 7

Luckily, it didn't take that long to get from the Deep Jungle to the next world, so the trip was relatively peaceful. Since Donald had now not only prohibited bouncing, but any form of singing as well, Katy decided to smush her face against the window and watch as Heartless ships and other space objects flew past them. She was so engrossed in the landscape that she didn't notice Sora staring at her. It wasn't until the other teen tried to bite back a snicker that Katy turned around. She glared at him playfully.

"What?"

"You look like a little kid."

"Why thank you, I take much pride in that."

Sora laughed and crossed the small interior of the ship to sit next to her.

"Really though, it's like you've never seen space before. Nothing's changed out there since the last time."

"Maybe I just like looking out the window. Besides it not like I can do anything fun. The ugly duckling has forbidden any sort of entertainment."

Donald shot her a glare and she held up her hands in mock surrender.

"I only speak the truth."

After another hour of back and forth, Donald announced that they were landing. The party clamored off their vessel and looked around.

"Dude, it looks like something out of those icky documentaries they make us watch in history class."

"Icky?" Sora asked amused

Katy huffed.

"Is it necessary to constantly make comments about my word choices?! I have a colorful vocabulary okay?!"

Rolling his eyes, Sora walked away leaving Katy to pout behind him. She caught up as they entered the large, ornate building. Once inside, they saw a short, stubby—

"Ohmygosh! It's a freaking centaur!" Katy exclaimed, bouncing in place.

The centaur whipped around and Katy frowned and cocked her head to the side.

"I though centaurs were supposed to be pretty, like in Harry Potter."

"Who's Harry Potter?" Sora asked

Katy's eyes got big as she stared at the other teen in disbelief.

"You don't have Harry Potter where you live?"

"Uh, no."

"Dude that's like a freaking federal offense, you could probably go to jail. You're missing one of the key components in life. Harry Potter is VITAL, like water, like reality television, like VAMPIRES!"

Sora was still staring at her, looking even more clueless.

"Okay, it's official. If my world didn't get eaten by the bunnies, I'm kidnapping you, tying you up in my basement and forcing you to learn about American pop culture."

Someone cleared their throat rather loudly behind them and they both turned to see that the centaur was giving them a rather angry glare.

"Oh! Sorry, I didn't mean to insult you…?"

"The names Phil."

"Phil. I'm Katy. Those two over there are Donald and Goofy, and this is Sora." Katy said, deciding to take introductions into her own hands since Donald and Goofy were preoccupied with Phil's request to slide a large stone block across the room, and Sora was still looking at Katy like she was crazy.

"What are you doing here anyway? This here's the world famous coliseum…heroes only!"

Katy opened her mouth to interject but Phil made a "chst" sound and she fell silent.

"I've got my hands full preparing for the games, so run along pip-squeaks."

Sora shot Phil a glare that was more cute then menacing and Katy couldn't help but squeal and snap a picture.

Phil sighed and rested his hands on his hips.

"Look, it's like this, heroes are coming from all over to fight ferocious monsters right here in the coliseum."

"You've got heroes standing right in front of you." Donald said, crossing his arms (wings?)

"Yup! Sora's a real hero chosen by the Keyblade." Goofy said.

Katy cleared her throat loudly, but was ignored. Letting out a cry of disbelief she crossed her arms and pouted.

"Oh, so were playing the let's-pretend-that-Katy's-invisible-game? Got it. I see how it is."

Sora laughed and threw his arm around her shoulders.

"This is Katy. She was chosen too."

"Yeah, to be your glorified babysitter since you've already demonstrated that you obviously can't take care of yourself." She bit back playfully, slugging him in the arm.

"And we're heroes too!" Donald exclaimed, gesturing to himself and Goofy.

Phil found this quite funny.

"Heroes, you runts?"

He then proceeded to burst into hysterical laughter.

"What's so funny? I've fought a bunch of monsters."

"And talked to doorknobs." Katy muttered under her breath.

Phil composed himself and turned back to them.

"Hey, if you can't even move this…" Phil started, trying to make a point by moving the stone block himself.

It didn't look like it was working out too well.

"Then you can't call yourself…"

It still wasn't moving. Who was this guy again? I mean not very impressive for a mythical creature.

"A hero!" Phil ended dramatically.

Yeah, it would have been a really good blow to Sora's oh-so-fragile-ego…if the pedestal had actually moved.

"Harry Potter would have been able to move it." Katy whispered, shaking her head sadly

"WHO is this Harry guy?" Sora whisper-yelled back.

"Later!" Katy hissed as they waited for Phil to catch his breath.

"Okay, so it takes more than brawn." Phil admitted

"Well, let's see what you kids can do."

They then proceeded to spend (waste) the next hour breaking a series of crates and barrels within a time limit. There were four of them, so it wasn't really that difficult, just really, really, _really,_ (did I mention really?) tiring. By then end of the many, seemingly never ending trials, they were all exhausted.

"Okay, so we've come to the conclusion that we can break barrels. I knew that already. Why was it required for us to get all sweaty and gross?" Katy whiled, trying, unsuccessfully to blow her long, lavender bangs off her sticky face.

Once again, she was ignored. She was staring to get the feeling that her friends were getting used to her lack of obnoxiousness. Looks like she would have to fix that. Just as Phil told Sora that they _still_ couldn't enter the games, (that centaur was dead if he thought he was going to make her feel all gross and then _not_ let her compete) Katy did the only thing she could at that time to get there attention. She screamed. Loud. The others looked over at her shocked as she propped herself up on her elbows and sent Phil her evilest death glare.

"Why. Not?" She demanded

"Two words," He said once he got over the shock of her "mad face"

"You guy's ain't heroes!"

Sora , Donald, and Goofy were still looking at the mythical goat slack jawed, so Katy would, once again, have to step in.

"Okay, ONE, that was four words. Learn how to count. TWO, I'd like to see _you_ try to break all those barrels within your dinky time little limit. And THREE? You'll be hearing from my FREAKING lawyer for making me fight FREAKING stationary pieces of FREAKING splintery wood, and then not letting me enter your FREAKING competition."

The entire room fell silent and Phil was looking at Katy like she had six heads. She flipped her long hair off her still sweaty neck and stuck her nose in the air.

"Good day to you, sir!" She yelled to the not-so-pretty centaur as she left the coliseum, dragging Sora out by his wrist.

"But…" The spiky haired boy started to protest.

"I SAID GOOD DAY!"

Katy kept a firm hand on Sora's wrist until they were out of the coliseum.

"Why did you--? "

Katy cut Sora off

"If he doesn't think we're good enough then it's his loss."

Then a voice from behind them called out.

"Rather stubborn old goat, wouldn't you say?"

Katy brightened.

"Ohmygod YES!!! He's so—HOLY SHIT YOUR HEAD IS ON FIRE!"

The man, whose head was indeed on fire, rolled his eyes and waited for Katy to calm down.

"Heh, sorry. Guess you get that a lot."

"Not as often as you'd think." He said back sarcastically.

"Who are you?" Donald demanded.

"Whoa, hold on there, fuzz boy. Wait, let me guess…you want to enter the games right?"

He walked up behind Sora and went to place a blue, bony hand on his shoulder.

That's when Katy snapped.

It had never been like this before. When Sora was in danger, or when they separated it was just an uncomfortable gut feeling. This was different. This was a white hot urgency that was spreading through her body that was screaming for her to do something; run, scream, kick, bite, claw, do whatever it took to get Sora and the others away from this man. It seemed like an eternity went by when in reality, it had been less than a second. The man had not yet placed his hand on Sora's shoulder. Then she realized it was because he wasn't moving. _No one_ was moving. Katy gave a slight cry and looked around. Everything was still and there was an eerie edge to it all. She could still hear her heart beating in her ears, still feel the adrenaline rushing through her bloodstream, and then for a moment she saw something that was impossible.

Ryan was standing behind the flame-headed man.

She cried out again, this time in happiness and took a step forward. Then it was like someone else took over her body. Suddenly she was pushing the man back, away from Sora, her blades had materialized and she was crouched into a threatening stance. Ryan had disappeared.

"Stay. Away. Hades." She said through gritted teeth, her arms itching to bring the blades up and attack. The man held his hands up in surrender and backed away from her slowly.

"Easy, kid. I just wanted to give him this." He said, looking taken back as he handed her the entry pass. He hadn't told them his name.

Katy kept her defensive form and didn't relent until the man was gone. Everyone was quiet, until Katy felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned around, expected Sora to be annoyed at her, but instead she only saw concern.

"What was that?"

Katy didn't answer, and her eyes seemed to be glazed over.

"Katy? How did you know that guy's name? What--"

"Sora, you Donald and Goofy enter the games." She interjected, handing him the pass

"Without you?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

Katy stared off into the direction the Hades had left in

"Just trust me. It will be better if I don't compete."

Sora nodded slowly and left with Donald and Goofy to show Phil their pass. Meanwhile, Katy set off in the direction Hades left in. Something was going down here, and she was going to find out what…even if it killed her.

**

* * *

  
**

"That little punk is your next opponent, okay?" Hades said to Cloud in a secluded spot under the bleachers in the coliseum.

"Now don't blow it, just take him out."

Neither of them noticed the lavender haired girl hiding in the shadows.

"The great god of the Underworld is afraid of a kid? Sorry but my contract says--"

"I know! You think I don't know?! I wrote the contract!" Hades yelled.

"I know it says you're only required to kill Hercules in this tournament, but you've got to fight that kid to get to him! Come on."

Cloud pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache coming on.

"Look, it's like that old goat says: It's all just a game, so let loose and have fun with it! I mean a casualty or two along the way is no big deal, right?"

Cloud pushed off the wall and looked up, meeting Katy's eyes. They stared at each other for a few seconds before Katy put her finger to her lips. Cloud gave a small, unnoticeable nod and left the alcove, leaving Hades alone.

"Jeez. He's stiffer than the stiffs back home." Hades muttered.

"Still, suckers like him are hard to come by…"

Katy left not wanting to hear anymore.

As she made her way toward the coliseum lobby, someone grabbed her roughly by the arm and pulled her into a concealed entryway.

"Who are you?" Cloud asked in a dangerous voice.

Katy shook her head.

"That's on a need to know basis, and you don't need to know."

Cloud continued to glare at her and she sighed.

"Look, just don't listen to Hades okay. Don't hurt Sora."

"Why is he your _boyfriend_?" Cloud sneered.

"No, but he's the only hope we have against the Heartless."

Cloud said nothing.

"It's just a friendly suggestion. If you mess with him, you'll have me to deal with and I'm more trouble than I look." Katy said as she left to find her friends."

**

* * *

  
**

Watching with satisfaction as Cloud slumped to the ground; Katy couldn't help but feel relieved. She would have had a hard time following through with her threat…Cloud's sword was pretty bad ass. Sora walked over to Cloud, going to help him up, when his path was blocked by a giant three headed dog. It took all of Katy's self control not to scream.

"Dude, talk about Harry Potter…" She muttered to herself, eyes widening as the tri-canine drew closer to Sora.

"Oh, right, there was one other rule I forgot," A smooth voice from behind her said.

Katy turned around to face a very smug Hades.

"Accidents happen." Then he disappeared into the darkness of the alcove.

Katy didn't have time to follow him, she bolted out into the arena to assist the others.

"Kid, I got two words of advice for you: ATTACK!" Phil shouted.

"THAT'S ONLY ONE WORD!" Katy shrieked as she began to hack at one of the dog's heads. It was horrible. Cerberus was HUGE so there weren't many places to run. Plus, he shot this purple liquid darkness stuff at them, which as if it wasn't already gross enough, burned like something awful. The fight took the better part of an hour and by the time the giant three headed dog had collapsed, Katy wanted to join him. She didn't realize that she actually _had_ until Sora was looking down at her, face pale.

"You're bleeding."

Katy looked at her arm, which ad a huge chunk missing. It took a lot not to throw up.

"Heh, yeah I guess I am." She giggled

"Look, don't move. I'm gonna go get help."

Kay didn't hear him; she had broken into a fit of hysterical laughter. The air around her felt too think and heavy and hey eyes kept sliding out of focus. It barley registered when someone lifted her into their arms and carried her inside.

"Hang on kid."

Katy looked up to see Ryan holding her. He grinned his famous lopsided grin and she couldn't help but laugh. Her vision swam and Ryan disappeared. She frowned, she couldn't see the persons face clearly, but it defiantly wasn't Ryan. Ryan didn't have blue eyes…

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Katy woke to the familiar weightless feeling of being in space. She opened her eyes slowly and saw a pair of deep blue eyes peering at her. She screamed, but it came out sounding like a moan.

"Where? How?" She asked feebly.

"Hercules fixed up your arm best he could at the coliseum, but we're gonna have to get a doctor to look at it in Traverse Town."

"Were going to Traverse Town?"

"Yep." Sora answered, looking down at the ground almost…ashamed?

"What's the matter?"

"This is the second time you almost died helping me."

"I think that's kind of the whole _point_, Sora."

"It's not fair though! You didn't _ask_ for this. You shouldn't have to follow me around and be my walking sacrifice." He ranted, breathing hard.

"Are you done?"

"Yeah…I think so."

"Look. It's okay, really. I think it would be worse for me if I didn't help and something happened to you."

Sora opened his mouth to argue but Katy shushed him.

"No. I don't want to hear it. I feel crappy and I want to go back to sleep." Katy snapped, eyelids already drooping.

"Hey, when you wake up, will you tell me who Harry Potter is?"

Katy laughed.

"Sure. Whatever you want.

Sora grinned and Katy slowly fell asleep, the sound of the ship's engine and everyone's steady breathing soothing her.

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**A/N****: Bit of a long and dramatic one. The next two should be up tomorrow! REVIEW!!**


	8. Familiar Faces and Stubborn Ducklings

**Authors Note:**** So sorry I didn't get this out earlier. I had to write a Critical Lens for English (for those of you who know what that is, I know you feel my pain.) and it came out crappy no matter how many times I started it over. Also wanted to let you know that if Fanfiction cooperated and uploaded it, my avatar is what Katy looks like (except with green eyes) so you can go to my profile to see :) Enjoy!!!!!!!**

Disclaimer: I STILL don't own anything recognizable. Just Katy and Ryan

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The gummi ship arrived in Traverse Town just as night fell. Sora told Katy to stay on the ship until he got someone to carry her to meet the doctor. She was too weak to argue, so she waited patiently until he came back, gritting her teeth at the pain. If she ever saw that overgrown mutt again, she was going to chop off each and every one of its ugly heads.

"Gee, you weren't kidding, she's pretty banged up."

Katy propped herself up using her good arm and grinned at Yuffie.

"It's not _my_ fault the dog thought I was so damn delicious."

Yuffie cracked up as Leon brushed past her and carefully lifted her. Relishing the few moments she had to be tall, Katy looked around.

"Hey, I think I can see my house from up here!" She giggled

Sora looked at her nervously.

"Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yep, I'm fine, just trying to provide some comic relief. It's kind of my thing in case you haven't noticed."

They finally arrived at the Hotel in the Second District, where the doctor was waiting for them.

"The wound is serious, but not fatal. It might to take a while to heal though, since magic doesn't seem to work on it." The doctor said as he cleaned out Katy's wound and re-bandaged it.

After he left, Katy looked over at Sora and grinned.

"See? I'm gonna live!"

Sora grinned back and they left the Hotel. Donald and Goofy had gone to talk to Cid to ask him about the gummi they found in the Deep Jungle, leaving Sora and Katy to their own devices. They should have known better…

"I'm bored!" Sora whined, resting his hands behind his head as he walked.

"Ditto." Katy said, looking around.

They had stumbled into the Alleyway where they had first met, except this time the barred gate that was blocking an entrance was gone. Katy's face lit up and she grabbed Sora's wrist, pulling him along.

"C'mon! Let's see where this goes!"

Sora couldn't exactly protest and soon they had reached an old abandoned house in the middle of nowhere. The two of them went in, and that's when things started to get freaky. Katy looked around, not amused and sighed.

"Nothing here. Booooooooring." She sighed, flopping down on the damp ground. That's when they _both_ heard her.

"There's something about this musty place…"

Katy bolted upright and turned to Sora who was openly gaping at something to her left. She whipped her head around to see a pretty girl, about their age standing about a couple of feet away from her. She had short red hair and deep blue eyes, much like Sora's. She came to the conclusion that this was Kairi.

"You can see her? Hear her?" Sora whispered.

Katy nodded. Usually, she would have made a comment about why Sora hadn't gone up to her or said anything to her yet, but deep down they both knew why. She wasn't real.

"It reminds me of the secret place back home, where we used to scribble on the walls. Remember?" Kairi continued, as she turned her big blue eyes on Sora.

"Kairi?" He asked hopefully.

Then, just as quickly and unexpectedly as she appeared, she was gone. It wasn't hard to pick out the disappointment and confusion on Sora's face. Katy pulled herself off the floor, favoring her bad arm and placed her hand gently on her friends shoulder.

"Sora?"

"I thought…"

"I know… I'm sorry."

Sora looked down at the floor, defeated.

"I don't understand. I've seen her before too, but she's never really there."

"If it helps, I've seen Ryan."

Sora's eyes snapped up to meet hers.

"Really?"

"Yeah, twice, at the Coliseum."

A ghost of a smile appeared on Sora's face and she returned it. Steering him out of the abandoned cottage, they walked back to the First District in silence

* * *

Meeting up with Donald and Goofy once more, the party made their way to the Third District. Apparently, Cid was in the usually empty house their, so they were on their way there to find him. They parted ways again, Donald and Goofy going to find Cid and Katy and Sora just wandering around aimlessly…until the Heartless appeared. There weren't many of them, but two of them had backed Katy into an alcove nearby so she wasn't there to witness a silver haired boy finish off the rest of the Heartless in Sora's path.

"There you are. What's going on?" The teen asked, grinning.

"Riku!" Sora exclaimed, going over to his friend and pinching his cheeks to make sure he was real.

That's when Katy decided to make her entrance.

"YOU GOD DAMN STUPID FREAKING IDIOTIC BUNNY! JUST FREAKING DIE ALREADY!" She yelled, causing both boys to look over at her curiously.

Once again, the Heartless that she was fighting had attached itself to her arm by its teeth. Good thing it was her good arm or she'd probably be on the ground crying by now. When she finally disposed of it, she noticed the two boys stating at her, Sora shaking his head and snickering and Riku looking amused.

"Um, hi? Katy said, blushing slightly at her own antics. She shot Sora a glare and he got his laughter under control.

"Sorry, I'm good now."

"You are a very insensitive person. That bunny was eating my only good arm."

"Bunny?" Riku asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Don't ask" Sora said at the same time Katy exclaimed "Dude, they look like bunnies!"

Sora rolled his eyes at Katy's outburst.

"Katy this is my friend Riku. Riku, this is Katy."

Katy's eyes widened.

"OHMYGOSHWHYDIDN'TYOUTELLMEYOUFOUNDHIM??!!" She yelled in a rush, bouncing in place."

"Um, English please?" Sora asked.

Riku just continued to look amused.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME YOU FOUND HIM?! That's awesome!"

"You looked a little busy." Sora said gesturing to the alcove.

"So you've been with Sora this whole time?" Riku asked, giving her a not so subtle once over.

"Yeah, he didn't tell you? I'm his…" She was interrupted when Sora's hand clamped over her mouth.

"I know what your gonna say so don't even say it!" he yelled as she tried to yank his hand away from her mouth.

"What is she your girlfriend? I thought you had a thing for Kairi."

"She's NOT by girlfriend and I DON'T have a thing for Kairi."

Meanwhile, Katy was yelling profanities into Sora's hand, as she tried to get it off her face. Getting tired of waiting, she licked his palm and he jerked it away."

"EW!" He yelled as Riku downright laughed.

Katy glared at the both of them, coughing as she fished through her pockets for her inhaler.

"Sure, deprive the asthmatic of oxygen. That's a GREAT idea."

"Sorry." Sora said looking sheepish.

"Anyway, as I was saying, I'm basically his glorified babysitter." Katy said to Riku, grinning.

This caused the teen to break into _more_ hysterical laughter.

Sora glared at her and she rumpled his hair.

The three of them began to make their way to the First District. That's when Katy started to feel it. There was something _off_ about Riku. It wasn't as strong as the feeling she had with Hades, but it was there. Nervous as she was, she wasn't about to accuse him of anything just yet. Besides, he'd been Sora's friend for years so he couldn't be _that_ bad.

Plus he was hot. Really, _really_ hot. Not that it had to do with anything, but it was true.

They had just met up with Donald and Goofy when Sora finally realized that only one of his friends were present.

"Wait a minute, where's Kairi?"

"Isn't she with you?"

Sora just hung his head sadly.

"Well, don't worry. I'm sure she made it off the Island too. We're finally free. Hey, she might even be looking for us now. We'll all be together again soon, don't worry. Just leave everything to me. I know this--"

He was cut off by the sound of the Keyblade slicing through the air.

"You were saying?" Katy asked, giggling slightly

Riku sent her a glare and looked over his shoulder at Sora.

"Leave it to who?" he asked, laughing.

"Sora, what did you--"

"I've been looking for you and Kairi too, with their help." He said grinning over to Katy, Donald and Goofy.

"Who are they?"

"Ahem! My name is--" Donald started

"We've visited so many places and worlds looking for you."

"Really? Well, what do you know? I never would have guessed"

The bad feeling about Rink was getting stronger and it was taking all of Katy's self control not to whack him with her Keyblades.

"Oh, and guess what? Sora's the Keyblade Master!" Goofy exclaimed

Riku looked over at Katy.

"So you just follow him around?"

Katy summoned her own Keyblades, smirking a bit as Riku's eyes widened.

"I'm his Protector. It's my job to make sure nothing happens to him while he's saving the world, hence the babysitter part." Katy explained with just the slightest hint of a threat in her tone. Riku must have picked it up though because he raised his eyebrows at her in a kind of '_I'd like to see you try' _look.

"Who would've thought it?" Donald asked sarcastically.

"Shut it, duckling." Katy snapped, glaring

"Yeah, what's that supposed to mean?" Sora bit back.

"So this is called a Keyblade?" Riku asked

They all turned to look at him and saw that he was holding Sora's Keyblade.

"Huh? Hey, give it back!" Sora exclaimed, lunging for it.

Riku stepped back, and Sora fell to the ground.

Still studying the blade, Riku didn't hear Katy approach until she was gripping his wrist hard enough for it to leave a mark.

"Give it back." She said, her voice dangerously low

He gave her another once over, his eyes lingering on her chest. Katy slapped him with her free hand.

"In your dreams, dude… I am _so_ out of your league." She hissed, forcefully taking the Keyblade from him and tossing it to Sora.

There was a short period of silence.

"Okay, so, you're coming with us right? We've got this awesome rocket! Wait 'till you see it!"

"No, he can't come." Donald said firmly.

For the first time, he and Katy were on the same page.

Sora glared at him.

"What?! "

"Forget it."

"C'mon! He's my friend!"

"I don't care!"

"Hey, he's gone!" Goofy exclaimed.

"Riku?" Sora called out, looking around.

"Nice going." He said to Donald.

"It could be worse, Sora." Katy said timidly.

Sora looked over at her and grinned.

"Yeah, at least he's okay, and who knows? Maybe we'll run into Kairi soon too."

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"You see? It's just as I told you. While you toiled away trying to find your dear friend, he quite simply replaced you with some new companions. Evidently, now he values them far more than he does you. You're better off with out that wretched boy, his animal friends, and that spoiled little girl. Now, think no more of him and come with me, I'll help you find what you're searching for." Malificent purred into Riku's ear.

He wanted to tell her that she was full of it, but he couldn't help but wonder. Was it possible that Sora _had_ replaced him and Kairi? His fists clenched at his sides and his mind was made up. He didn't need to be a hero. He could be just as good as Sora even if he roamed in darkness.

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Katy was tired, out of breath and her arm was killing her. After they had gone to the Gizmo Shop and cleared it of enemies, they took the secret elevator up to the top of the building and began a series of life-threatening jumps across the rooftops of the Third District. They found the dopey bell, rang it three times which made that same giant heartless that Katy _swore_ they had beat already materialize out of nowhere. After they killed it (again) they finally managed to close the Traverse Town keyhole. AS they trudged back to the gummi ship, Sora stopped her.

"Hey, I'm sorry about before, with Riku. He's kind of…like that."

"Oh, so he usually checks out random girls shamelessly? Great, I feel better" Katy said sarcastically.

Sora started to retort, but she stopped him.

"Relax; I was kidding…sort of. He's your friend, so there must be something good about him."

Sora smiled his cheesy smile at her.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it."

As they boarded the ship, Katy began to second guess her judgment. Sighing, she could only hope that what she said to Sora was true, that somewhere inside him, Riku was a good person. One could only hope…

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**I'll try to have the next chapter out by tomorrow. Until then, REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!**


	9. Agrabah Home of Genies and Ponies

**Authors Note:** **Okay! The almost daily updates are coming to an end. From now on, expect updates every Sunday. I'm putting all my other stories on hold until I'm done with this, because otherwise I'll never finish. Before we go to Agrabah, I just want to thank ****soraroxas365, NejisDarkNymph, ****(they get underlines cause they reviewed more than once :D) xxKHfanxx, and Clumsylittlegirl****for reviewing. They're pretty much the reason I haven't given up on this story already. So, I have to say that if you're reading, please just take the time to review. I'd really like to hear what you think of the story. Compliments are great, constructive criticism is welcome. Thanks and enjoy!!!**

Disclaimer: If I owned Kingdom Hearts I would have quit school a LONG time ago. I only own Katy and Ryan.

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The second Katy looked out the window when the Gummi ship landed in Agrabah; she demanded a pair of scissors. Proceeding to the back of the vessel, she stripped off her top and cut it in half so that it covered her bra and then some. She abandoned her black leggings, deciding to deal with her skirt until she could get herself a decent pair of shorts. Tossing her Converse with the leggings, she cut the top half of her polka-dotted socks off so her toes could be seen. Satisfied that she wasn't going to melt, Katy exited the ship, brushing past Sora who was openly gaping at her.

"Your skirt is really short…" He said to her, praying her didn't sound like a pervert. He knew his friend probably hadn't forgotten the run-in she had with Riku just yet.

"Yeah, I know. That's why before we do anything, we have to try and find a place that sells shorts…or at least a longer skirt."

Sora nodded, blushing a bit as the party proceeded to the marketplace.

* * *

"And the keyhole?" Malificent (sp?) asked Jafar as they made their way through a deserted street.

"The Heartless are searching for it now. I'm sure we'll find it soon enough." He answered, coming to stand behind to his companion.

"So that just leaves--"

At that moment, there was a loud SQUAWK as a brightly colored parrot came to rest on Jafar's shoulder, and yep, you guessed it. He could talk.

"Jafar! I've looked everywhere for Jasmine, she's disappeared like magic!"

"Hmph! The girl is more trouble than she's worth."

"You said you had things under control." Malificent said, her voice cutting low in annoyance.

"Agrabah is full of holes for rats to hide in, but why worry about Princess Jasmine? With her or without her, surely this world will be ours once we find the keyhole."

"We need all seven Princesses of Heart to open the final door. Any fewer is useless."

"Well, if the Princess is that important, we'll find her."

Jafar summoned his lackeys or, more specifically, his turban wearing Heartless.

"Find Jasmine and bring her to me at once."

He watched, satisfied as his minions scampered off.

"Don't steep yourself in darkness to long. The Heartless consume the careless." Malificent warned.

Jafar laughed.

"Your concern is touching, but hardly necessary."

As the pair left the empty street, Princess Jasmine slumped down further behind a haphazardly placed pile of crates, her suspicions about Jafar confirmed.

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Having successfully found a pair of shorts, our favorite characters made their way through Agrabah, the Heartless nowhere to be seen so far. Katy and Sora trailed behind Donald and Goofy, talking about, surprisingly, themselves. Although they had been traveling together for about a month, they really didn't know anything about each other. Sora found himself telling his friend about his past; how he first met Riku, the day Kairi came to the Islands and just the Islands in general. Katy was intrigued and couldn't help but wish her life was as that simple.

"So what about you? Where are you from?" Sora asked, his blue eyes curious.

Katy laughed at his expression and began to go about answering his question.

"Well, I guess my world is called Earth…but we don't call it a _world_ exactly. We call it a planet, and it's not just one big united place. The landmasses are divided into continents, which are divided into countries, which have states, which have cities."

"Why are you all split up?"

"I don't really know; it seems kind of dumb now that I've seen otherwise."

"So, where do you live?"

"I live in the United States, which is on the continent North America."

"Cool! So which... state do you live in?" Sora asked, catching on quickly.

"Summerside, Maine." Katy said grinning

"Do you like it there?"

"Yeah, it's nice. It gets pretty cold, especially in the winter, but I live really close to the ocean which is awesome in the summer. Plus my street has the _coolest_ name."

Sora raised an eyebrow causing her to laugh.

"It's called Mermaid Lane."

"That is pretty cool." Sora said, laughing along with her.

When the two of them caught their breath, Sora continued to drill her for information.

"So, it's just you and your parents?"

"Just me and my mom, actually. My dad left before I was born and my mom never met anyone else."

"Wow…I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it. You can't miss what you never had; besides, I don't do well with authority figures. I barley realize my mom lives with me, let alone listen to her."

Sora looked a little confused, so Katy elaborated.

"What I mean is, she's pretty much never home, my mom; and when she is, she just gets on my nerves. She basically reminds me that I'm a screw up destined to fail at everything I try in life."

They both fell silent for a while, continuing to follow the labyrinth of empty streets.

"So what about Ryan and your other friends?" Sora inquired.

"Jeez, you don't give up do you?"

Sora smiled wryly and shook his head.

"Alright, well, Ryan is pretty much like my big brother. I practically _live_ at his house and his parents take better care of me than my mom does. Besides him my best friends are Cassie Halliday and Jordan Tate. I've known them since the third grade and they pretty much rock. You'd probably like them; I know they'd like you."

"Do you think they're okay?"

"I hope so…I really hope so." Katy sighed, smiling sadly.

Their conversation was cut short by a timid voice that came from the corner of the street they were currently on."

"Whose there? Hello?"

A very pretty girl rose from where she had obviously been hiding, and looked at them curiously. She was wearing a turquoise top with matching pants. Her long black hair was pulled buck into a braid and a gold tiara sparkled from atop her head.

"Hi, I'm Sora. This is Katy, Donald, and Goofy." Sora said, pointing to each of them respectively.

"I'm Jasmine; tell me, you haven't seen anyone named Aladdin have you?"

"Aladdin? No can't say we have, sorry." Katy answered smiling at Jasmine softly.

"It's really important I find him. He's been helping me hide from a man named Jafar. I'm afraid something's happened to him."

"Why are you hiding from Jafar?"

"He's not to be trusted, I'm sure of it now. Aladdin's been helping me, he knows his way around better than I do, but I haven't seen him and now I'm worried."

"Aladdin? Where may I find this street rat?" A voice from above them called out.

"Jasmine, allow be to find you more suitable company, my dear Princess. These little rats won't do, you see."

Apparently this was Jafar.

"Gee, he's attractive." Katy mumbled to herself sarcastically.

"Jasmine, run!" Sora whispered to the Princess. She nodded and took off down the adjoining alley.

Sora and Katy summoned their Keyblades, looking up at their newest enemy.

"Ah, the ones who hold the Keys." Jafar said as he strode away, leaving a swarm of Heartless in his wake.

After they had been taken care of, the party decided that the best course of action would be to find Aladdin. After asking around, they found out that he lived in a sort of loft above the Market Place. Finding one of the poles that were used as entryways, they entered Aladdin's home.

"Okay, so this guy isn't exactly well off." Katy observed, looking around.

"Yeah, I guess not." Sora agreed.

Just as they were about to give up and search somewhere else, a flash of movement caught Katy's eye. Turning towards it, she gasped. A piece of carpet was struggling to free itself from a dresser that had found its way on top of it. Sora moved the piece of furniture, letting the carpet go free. Before it zoomed off however, it seemed to beckon to them."

"I think it wants us to follow it." Goofy said.

They followed the enchanted rug to the entrance to the desert. It hovered in place and the four of them hesitated before they got on.

"God, I wish this thing had seat-belts." Katy groaned as they took off.

They flew through the desert for the rest of the day, finally coming to a stop at a seemingly nondescript stretch of sand. When they looked closer, they saw that there was actually a large heartless surrounded sinkhole that had trapped a young man and his pet monkey. Unable to do anything about the sinkhole, the four began attacking the turban-wearing Heartless. They didn't make much leeway and the humid temperature along with the tedious task of fighting in the sand was beginning to tire them out.

"Gawrsh, not again!" Goofy exclaimed as more Heartless began to materialize.

The young man, who had finally gotten himself and his monkey out of the sinkhole, whipped out a gold lamp and rubbed it.

"Genie, get rid of these guys!"

A blue genie poofed out of the lamp, grinning.

"Wish number one, coming right up!" He exclaimed and the Heartless disappeared with a snap of his fingers.

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**One magic carpet ride and looooooooooong explanation later…**

"I see…Thanks, Sora." Aladdin said sincerely as they arrived at a safer stretch of desert.

"Aladdin, what are you doing out here?" Sora asked.

"Besides risking your life" Katy added.

"Same old stuff, hunting legendary treasure; I just paid a visit to the Cave of Wonders. I found that magic carpet…and this lamp. Legend has it that whoever holds the lamp can summon the--"

"Please, kid, leave the intros to a professional. The one and only GENIE OF THE LAMP!"

Katy couldn't help but laugh and bounce in place, swept up by Genie's hyper active energy.

"Rub-a-dub-dub the lamp and have your dearest wishes granted, and today's winner is ALADDIN! Congratulations!"

"Any wish?" Donald asked skeptically

Katy's eyes grew wide and she turned to Aladdin.

"Ohmygosh! Wish for a pony!"

"Patience, my fine purple- haired friend. Any three wishes! A one wish, a two wish, a three wish, and then I make like a banana and split! Our lucky winner made his first wish--"

Genie floated over to Sora and mumbled in his ear

"And let me tell you what a doozy that wish was."

Sora laughed and Genie flew back to his place between Aladdin and Donald.

"Now he has two wishes left! So, master, what will you have for wish number two?"

"Pony, pony, pony!" Katy whined, pulling on Aladdin's arm

He laughed and shook her off.

"How about making me a fabulously wealthy prince?"

"Oh! Money, royalty, fame! Why didn't I think of that? Okay, you asked for it! A hundred servants and a hundred camels loaded with gold. Just say the word and I'll deliver it in thirty minutes or less or your meal's free! Hey, I'll even throw in that pony!"

Katy squealed and began bouncing again.

"Uh, why a prince?" Goofy inquired?

"You see, there's this girl in Agrabah named Jasmine, but she's a Princess and I'm…she'd never fall for a guy like me." Aladdin confessed, hanging his head.

"Oh, a Princess?" Goofy started

"Jasmine?" Donald finished.

"UGH! How could we forget?! I blame you!" Katy yelled, pointing to Sora, who spoke.

"Oh, that's right! She's in trouble Aladdin!"

"What? Well, c'mon! Let's get going!" he exclaimed, climbing back on the carpet.

* * *

"Ah! The fresh air, the great outdoors!" Genie sighed as he flew next to them.

"Guess you don't get out much, huh?" Sora asked

"Comes with the job. Phenomenal cosmic powers, itty bitty living space; it's always three wishes, then back to my portable prison. I'm lucky to see the light of day every century or two."

"Say, Genie. What if I use my last wish to free you from the lamp?" Aladdin asked.

Genies face became, if possible, even more comical.

"You'd do that?"

"Genie, it's a promise. After we help Jasmine."

Returning to Agrabah just as the sun rose, the six of them raced to the Palace. There they found Jasmine, being held…captive so to speak by Jafar.

"Setting your sights a little high, aren't you boy? Back to your hole, street rat. I won't allow you to trouble the princess anymore."

"Jasmine!"

"I'm so sorry! Aladdin!" Jasmine cried out.

Aladdin held the lamp behind his back and rubbed it.

"Genie! Help Jasmine, please!"

Jafar turned around to see Genie holding Jasmine about thirty feet above his head.

"One wish left! You're making this really easy, you know?"

"So sorry, boy, but I'm afraid your second wish has been denied!"

They all whipped around to find that Jafar's parrot, Iago (sp?), had taken the lamp from Aladdin. Genie's shoulders slumped in defeat.

"I'm sorry, Al." He said, dropping Jasmine into a jug on the ground next to him which promptly turned into a Heartless.

"And now, I bid you all farewell. Attack!" Jafar ordered, as he left the alley.

Defeating the Heartless wasn't that hard with five people and the battle ended quickly and with few minor injuries. Aladdin was frantic as he searched the alleyway for the Princess

"Jasmine!" He called out, looking defeated. His only response was Jafar's laughter which seemed to come from everywhere at once.

"Everyone, to the desert! Let's move!" He demanded, and they all rushed off to find the magic carpet.

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**A/N:**** Part two will be up on Sunday! Please review!**


	10. The Cave of Wonderous Perils

**Authors Note:**** Agrabah Part two!!! This chappie's kinda short so I might post Monstro a little earlier :)**

Disclaimer: If you think I somehow magically obtained ownership of Kingdom Hearts in the past week…I didn't. I just own Katy, but surprisingly, I can live with that

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Jafar had brought an unconscious Princess Jasmine to a small chamber in the Cave of Wonders. Genie was there as well, looking quite disappointed with himself.

"My first wish, Genie! Show me the Keyhole!"

Genie glared at Jafar before snapping his fingers revealing the worlds Keyhole, which was embedded in one of the room's rock walls.

Jafar's evil laughter was cut short when the 'alarm' (swarms of Heartless) he had placed in the first few rooms of the cave went off.

"That boy again?" Maleficent inquired as she basically appeared out of thin air in front of the Keyhole.

"He's more persistent than I expected." Jafar answered, unphased.

"Why not explain the situation to that boy, Riku? Doing so may actually prove useful to our--"

He was interrupted by the sound of footsteps. Sora, Katy and Aladdin raced into the room, Donald and Goofy holding the Heartless off outside.

Katy looked up hatefully at Jafar, her eyes wandering over to Maleficent. Suddenly, her head exploded in white hot pain. Screaming, she stumbled back, thankful that, Sora was there to break her fall.

"It's her, Sora. I can feel it. It's her. Be careful." Katy whispered, slumping against him for balance.

Sora looked up at the cloaked woman in front of him.

"Wait a second. You're Maleficent!"

The witch just smirked and disappeared as quickly as she appeared.

"Jafar, let Jasmine go!" Aladdin demanded.

"Not a chance. You see she's a Princess—one of seven who somehow hold the key to opening the door, but you fools won't live to see what lies beyond it! Genie, my second wish. Crush them!"

Aladdin gasped.

"Genie, no!"

"Sorry, Al. The one with the lamp calls the shots, I don't have a choice.

Katy's vision was swimming and she promptly collapsed on the floor just as Genie summoned whatever he needed to summon.

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**

Everything was white, that's the first thing she realized. The brightness of the place she was in burned through her closed eyelids and she turned over, squeezing her eyes shut to block it out.

"Wake up."

Katy groaned as the words caused a searing pain in her head.

"Kate, c'mon, you gotta get up."

What happened? She had been standing next to Sora and then that woman…

Maleficent.

Just thinking the name made her want to run screaming.

"KATY!"

Her eyes opened slowly, only to see nothing all around her. That's all this place was just a huge stretch of white.

"Am I dead?" She asked softly, rubbing at her eyes.

The voice that woke her laughed.

"No. Not yet. You're actually doing pretty well."

That voice. She knew that voice. Sitting up carefully, she looked up.

It was Ryan.

Even though she had seen him before, he could tell that this time was different, he was really there.

"Are you dead?"

Ryan hesitated.

"I…don't know."

Tears filled Katy's eyes, but she sucked it up and nodded

"Okay, I can live with that."

"Listen to me, Kate. Things aren't what they seem. _People_ aren't what they seem. You have to be able to protect Sora from everything, even himself."

"You're talking about Riku."

Ryan nodded and smiled.

"You always did catch on quick…"

The sound of garbled speech echoed around them and Ryan paled.

"You're waking up."

Katy smiled sadly at him.

"Please be okay, Ry. When this is all over, please be there."

"I'll try, I promise. Be careful Kate, no more getting your arms torn off, alright?

The white began to fade to black and Ryan faded along with it. Katy woke up, for the first time in a month, feeling reassured.

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She feigned sleep so that she'd have the element of surprise. Whatever Genie had summoned was obviously dead now, and Jafar didn't sound too happy about it.

"Genie! My final wish! I want you to turn me into an all powerful genie!"

Katy could feel the room shifting around her; feel the heat that seemed to bubble up from the ground. Opening her eyes, she realized that they would be fighting Jafar, the Genie, in a giant lava pit. Just as he went in for the first strike, aimed at Sora, Kat jumped up, summoning her blades, and thrashed him in the back, jumping sideways on the platform next to her. She looked over at Sora and the others expectantly.

"Go on, get him! I'm not doing all the work!"

It was a pretty difficult battle. Since Jafar could fly he was harder to catch and even harder to hit. It took a while to wear him down, and they were all pretty much boiling in the intense heat. After awhile though, the five of them were able to fall into a routine and soon Jafar was no more. Aladdin quickly tossed Sora Jafar's lamp.

"Okay, Jafar! Back to your lamp!" Sora exclaimed.

"Dramatic." Katy sang, laughing to herself.

Genie-Jafar swirled down into his lamp where he would hopefully remain for all eternity.

The five of them made their way over to the platform where Jasmine had been seconds ago…but now she was gone.

As Aladdin searched frantically for her, (really, the platform is barley 4x4, not many places she could have gone) Sora approached the world's keyhole and locked it. Then the room started to shake.

"Whoa, we better get out of here!" Goofy exclaimed as they all piled onto the magic carpet, Sora and Katy restraining Aladdin from searching for Jasmine any longer.

They left the Cave of Wonders just before it closed, hopefully for the last time.

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**At Aladdin's house…**

"Uh, Earth to Al. Hello? You still have one wish left! Just say the word. Ask me to find Jasmine for you!"

Aladdin looked up from where he had been slumped in depression.

"I wish…for your freedom Genie!"

"Al!" Genie exclaimed in disbelief

They all watched as Genie was released from the lamp for good.

"A deals a deal, Genie. Now, you can go anywhere you want! You're your own master. But if you can, it would be great if you could go along with them and help Sora find Jasmine."

Genie turned his back to them.

"Sorry, Al. I'm done taking orders from others."

They all hung there heads

"Buuuuuut a favor, now that's entirely different! I guess I could give that a try. After all, we're pals, right Al? Just leave it to me."

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**

That smarmy vizier could have had 'em…if _someone_ had stuck around to give him a hand." Hades accused, looking over at the teenage boy next to him.

"Hey, I did my part. I brought the princess, didn't I?" Riku bit back defensively, with the smallest hint of desperation in his voice.

Even though these people these _villains_ said they accepted him, he knew he was just a pawn. One wrong move and he was dead, that was enough to scare him pretty shitless.

"Jafar was beyond help, consumed by his own hatred. One should beware letting it burn to fiercely." Maleficent droned, looking over at Hades.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, lighten up. I'm as cool as they come, okay? By the way, kid, have we got something special for you."

"Huh?" Riku looked over at Maleficent, curiously.

"We had a deal, yes? You help us and we grant you your wish."

An Illusion of a sleeping girl appeared on the table in front of him.

"Kairi!"

"Go to her. Your vessel is waiting."

Riku looked behind him to see Captain Hook entering the room.

"Just remember, this is no pleasure cruise. It won't be a pleasant voyage."

"Why are you doing all this for me? What's the catch?" Riku demanded, glaring at the villains in the room.

"Catch, what's the catch? Silly boy, you are like a son to me. I only want you to be happy." Maleficent crooned, cradling the side of his face.

Riku slapped her hand away.

"I seriously doubt that."

"Believe what you wish, but lest we forget, I kept _my_ end of the bargain."

With one final glare, Riku left the room. His only concern was to find Kairi. Nothing and no one else mattered anymore.

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**REVIEW!!!!!**


	11. The World Inside A Whale

**Authors Note:**** I am so sorry I didn't get this up on Sunday! I've had the flu all week and I haven't been able to drag myself out of bed. I decided not to split this one up to make up for it, so it's really, **_**really**_** long (eleven pages on word) The next chapter will still be up on Sunday though, so don't worry **

Disclaimer:  When I own Kingdom Hearts, you guys will be the first to know.

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Sora was flying the Gummi Ship, that fact alone was enough to make Katy feel sick. They were plummeting through deep space, when a loud noise caused Sora to stop their flight.

"What was that?" Goofy asked, looking out the window.

"I don't know, but it's getting closer." Sora said nervously.

They continued looking for the source of the loud noise when suddenly Donald cried out;

"LOOK!"

Katy's head smacked against the glass window pane and she groaned. She walked over to stand beside Donald and her eyes widened;

"Holy crap! Either I hit my head harder than I thought, or that's a whale."

The second the word 'whale' had been spoken, the creature opened its mouth and the Gummi Ship was being pulled into it.

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**

"It's true! I saw it with my own eyes!"

"You sure you didn't just hear it this time?"

A younger Sora turned his big blue eyes onto a younger looking Riku.

"What difference does it make?"

"Alright, suppose there really is a monster, think we can beat it by ourselves, Sora?"

Sora grinned

"No problem, let's do it!"

The two friends made their way over to the assumed monster's den

"Listen, there! Can you hear it growling?"

Riku crouched down to hear better

"Shhhhh! Listen! We've gotta be careful." He whispered as the pair entered the cave-like alcove.

"See that? It was just the wind making that noise."

"Aw, man. I wish it was a monster." Sora pouted.

"Hold on! What's that over there?"

"A window or maybe a door, I can't get it open." Riku said, pushing against it.

"Geez, is that really all that's in here?"

"What do you expect in a boring place like this?"

To that, Sora had no rebuttal, and the two boys stood in the cave in silence.

"Hey, Sora? When we grow up, let's get off this island. We'll go on real adventures, not this kid stuff."

"Sure, but isn't there anything fun to do _now?_" Sora asked, impatiently.

"Hey, you know the new girl, at the mayor's house? Did you hear--?"

"Sora?"

The younger Sora looked around to see who was calling him, only to find that everything had disappeared.

"C'mon, dude. You're scaring me. Wake up!"

Destiny Islands faded away and Sora opened his eyes.

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"KNOCK IT OFF!" Donald exclaimed, at an extremely high decibel level.

Sora winced and blinked a few times. Katy's worried face was staring down at him and he jumped slightly.

"Um, hi?"

Katy grinned and helped him up.

"He's alive!" She announced to the others.

"Hey, Sora, are you okay?"

"What are you guys doing? Where are we anyway?"

"It's a looooooooooong story, my friend, a long and _painful_ story." Katy sighed, taking a seat on the moist ground.

At that moment, an item box fell from out of seemingly nowhere. Goofy put his shield over his head for protection.

"Uh, ya know, I think that big 'ol whale we saw just swallowed us. And, for today's weather: expect showers!"

Another item fell on top of Goofy's shield

"Heavy showers!"

"HEY! WHOSE THERE?" Donald yelled

A very familiar wooden puppet peeked his head out over the box he was going through.

"It's just me!"

"Oh, it's just Pinocchio." Donald said, uncrossing his arms.

They all stood there awkwardly.

"Pinocchio?!" Donald exclaimed.

"Pinocchio!" The fifth and most neglected member of our party, Jiminy Cricket, called out.

"Katy!" Katy added, causing Sora and Goofy to look at her funny.

"Well I figured since we were yelling out names and all…" She explained, sheepishly.

Pinocchio walked away from them, a rather large item in his hands.

"Pinocch? Where are you going? Pinocch!" Jiminy called, getting no response from their wooden friend. He turned to the others.

"C'mon everyone, after him! Quick!" Jiminy exclaimed, taking off after Pinocchio, Donald and Goofy behind him.

Sora and Katy looked at each other.

"When did we start listening to the talking cricket?" Sora asked.

Katy squealed.

"YES! I'm rubbing off on you after all." Sora laughed and the two of them ran after the others.

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"What have you got there, Pinocchio?"

"With this, we can get out of here, Father!"

"Really, with this big block? You think so?"

"It's true. So how did you end up here Pinocchio?" Sora asked as they all climbed onto the boat Pinocchio and his Father were standing on.

"Oh, my! So the whale swallowed all of you too? My goodness!"

"Yeah, looks like it." Sora said."

"My name is Geppetto, I'm Pinocchio's father. When we got separated, I traveled all over looking for him. Thank goodness were together again."

As Geppetto rambled on to Sora and the others, Katy was watching Pinocchio. He seemed rather interested in an opening a short distance away. Turning her attention over to it, her eyes widened as a boy with silver hair and a yellow shirt ran into it, Pinocchio following. Slapping her forehead, Katy hurried after them, hoping Sora would get wise and follow them soon.

"So, you seem to know Pinocchio quite well. I hope he was a good boy in my absence." Geppetto continued, oblivious to his son's departure.

The three remaining party members exchanged glances.

"Well, we've all had quite a journey, right Pinocchio? Pinocchio?"

It wad then that they realized that the puppet was nowhere in sight…and neither was Katy.

"Where did they go?" Donald asked, impatient to get out of the marine animal they were trapped in.

Sora shook his head and took off for the cavern Katy had gone through a few minutes previously.

Meanwhile, Katy was navigating through the many chambers of the whales…insides (ew!) before she finally caught up with Pinocchio. Before she could reach him, someone grabbed her from behind and covered her mouth with their hand.

"Be. Quiet." Riku whispered, dangerously.

Katy glared at him and continued trying to wiggle out of his grip. She doubled her efforts once she heard Sora's voice.

"What are you doing? C'mon lets go back." Sora said exasperatedly to Pinocchio.

"You know, Geppetto's awful worried about you." Goofy added.

The puppet still wouldn't move from his spot across the chamber.

"Pinocchio stop fooling around, this is no time for games." Sora said firmly, his patience wearing thin.

Riku turned to her.

"I'm letting go of you. Stay put and be quiet or you'll be sorry."

Katy normally wouldn't have listened, but something was nagging her to do so. She nodded vigorously and Riku released her. She crossed her arms over her chest and sulked as the teen revealed himself to Sora.

"But, Sora, I thought you liked games. Or are you too cool to play them now that you have the Keyblade."

Sora turned back around, surprised.

"Riku! Wh-What are you doing here?

"Just playing with Pinocchio."

"You know what I mean! What about Kairi, did you find her?"

Riku smirked and didn't answer.

"Whatever. Have you seen Katy? The girl I was with in Traverse Town?"

"Maybe."

"It isn't funny, Riku!"

"Catch us, and then maybe I'll tell you what you want to know."

With that Riku grabbed Pinocchio, hopped onto the ledge Katy was on and yanked both of them out the chamber door.

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"Stop it! OW! Jesus Christ! I'm perfectly capable of walking, thanks!" Katy protested as Riku tried to drag her through the many chambers.

"If I let go, you're just gonna run away. I'm not stupid."

"Beg to differ!"

Riku whirled around and glared at her.

"I'm not the one that got kidnapped by the Keyblade Master's best friend!"

Katy smirked.

"So you still consider yourself his best friend. That's good."

Riku said nothing, and began pulling her again.

"You know, this whole evil act really doesn't suit you. I mean if you're trying to go for the dark-mysterious-misunderstood type, there are other ways of going about it…and in the end you'll probably still be alive."

Riku laughed humorlessly.

"So now you're worried about me."

"No, but I'm worried about what it's going to do to Sora if he ever has to fight you. Like you said, you're his best friend; you can't _really_ want to hurt him."

"It's always all about Sora isn't it?"

"If that's the way you want to look at it, sure. It's only going to make you bitterer though, and from what I gather, bitterness and Heartless don't mix."

"The big bad Heartless aren't gonna get me…but thanks for the concern."

"No problem."

They walked in awkward silence for awhile, Katy planning a good strategy to get him to tell her some of the things he knew.

"So, you found Kairi! Congrats!"

Riku stopped short, but didn't turn around.

"So what if I did?"

"Did you ever stop to think about what _she _might think about you crossing over to the dark side?"

"Hey, at least I found her and didn't replace her with talking animals and an annoying little girl."

Katy rolled her eyes.

"Do you normally check out annoying little girls?"

Riku gritted his teeth.

"I think that makes you a pedophile, and that's not really smiled upon…at least where I'm from."

"You're not from Traverse Town?" Riku asked, actually sounding interested.

"Nope, I'm from Summerside, Maine."

"Never heard of it."

"Well, I've never heard of Destiny Islands."

"Touché."

Katy chewed her lip before taking the plunge.

"So, since we both know you found Kairi, maybe you could tell me if you found someone else?"

This time, Riku stopped altogether and turned around to face her.

"You're looking for someone?"

"Yeah, his name's Ryan…Ryan Delagar…Have you seen him, heard of him?"

"If I do know something about him, why should I tell you?"

Katy smiled sadly. What had she expected?

"No reason, just thought there might be some sympathy in there somewhere, guess I was wrong."

"What happened to him?" Riku asked after another stretch of silence.

Katy hesitated before answering, eyes slightly glazed over.

"There were Heartless everywhere. His house was closer than mine, so I went there, but it didn't matter. They tried to attack me, but he jumped in front of them and then he just…disappeared."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that."

After that all conversation ceased. It wasn't until that she cried out in pain, that Riku turned to look at her again.

"What--"

He didn't have time to finish his question. Maleficent appeared, her usual smirk present.

"Well, I see you've found some new company." She said, coolly, turning her gaze on Katy, who gasped in obvious pain.

Riku looked on, a barley detectable trace of concern in his eyes.

Maleficent, however, was having a blast with her new discovery.

"What's the matter, girl? Can't handle the presence of darkness?"

The witch took a few more steps towards Katy, causing her to scream.

"It's too bad you're the Protector. You could have had so much more potential were you on the right side." She crooned, stroking a finger over Katy's cheek.

The hateful hag's touch was too much for her and she fell backwards, convulsing on the floor, but determined not to pass out.

Smirking at her handiwork, Maleficent turned to Riku, a frown gracing her features.

"Why do you still care about that boy? He has all but deserted you for the Keyblade and his new companions, after all."

"I don't care about him; I was just messing with him a little."

"Oh really? Of course you were. Beware the darkness in your heart, the Heartless prey upon it." She warned as she conjured a portal.

"Mind your own business!" Riku yelled after her.

He turned to the spot where Katy had fallen. She was curled up in a fetal possession, he arms wrapped around her body protectively. Riku walked wordlessly over to her and picked her up, carrying her into the last of the tunnels that he had sent Pinocchio through.

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Sora, Donald and Goofy reached the last chamber (FINALLY!) just in time to see Pinocchio run through the door on the other side of the room. Riku was there as well and was about to follow him until Sora called out

"Riku, what's the matter with you?! What are you thinking? Don't you realize what you're doing?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing, Sora. You only seem interested in running around and showing off that Keyblade these days. Do you even _want_ to save Kairi?"

"I do..."

Suddenly, Pinocchio yelled from the next room, which was followed by a girl's bloodcurdling shriek. Sora's eyes widened in recognition.

"Katy!"

Our heroes plus Riku followed the cries for help, coming to face a large slimy looking creature with large tentacles. Its mouth was closed, showing off rubbery looking teeth which formed a cage that was currently holding Pinocchio. Katy however was being held captive at least sixty feet up in one of the tentacles.

I'm sure we all remember Katy's fear of heights *cough* Kyle Fletcher *cough*

Riku, who was looking a bit pale and guilty, (I mean, he leaves Katy with a puppet and expects her to be fine. Common sense? Nada.) turned to Sora.

"You up for this?"

Drawing the Keyblade, Sora grinned.

"No problem, let's do it."

The hardest part of the whole fight was trying to hit the monster without hurting Katy or Pinocchio. After a while, Sora found it was easier to let Riku and the others attack it head on while he shot fire at it. The battle was over in minutes, ending with Pinocchio being freed from his cage and dropped into a hole that had formed in the middle of the room, Riku following, and with Katy falling to the ground with a loud thump and mumbling about her phobia of heights. Sora rolled his eyes and helped her off the ground.

"Where did you go?"

Katy rolled her eyes.

"Was I the only one who saw the puppet run off? Use your observation skills, would you? I can't babysit you AND do _your_ job at the same time!"

Sora mumbled an apology and looked over at the large hole.

"Should we?"

"Do we have a choice?"

Sora grinned and shook his head, happily diving into the hole with Donald and Goofy following. Katy walked to the edge of the opening and screwed her eyes shut, going to her happy place before jumping after them.

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They landed back on Geppetto's ship, noting that the water levels were rising. Geppetto seemed to be trying to reason with someone who was standing on the ledge high above him. Three guesses who it is.

"Pinocchio! Please, give me back my son!"

"Sorry old man, I have some unfinished business with this puppet." Riku said, holding an unconscious Pinocchio under his arm.

"He's no puppet! Pinocchio is my little boy!"

"He is unusual, not many puppets have hearts. I'm not sure, but maybe he can help someone who's lost theirs."

Sora gasped.

"Wait a minute, are you talking about Kairi?!"

"What do you care about her?"

"Do you really think Kairi is going to appreciate it if she finds out what you had to do to get her a heart?" Katy asked, trying to reason with him.

Riku said nothing; he just turned around and entered the cave like opening he was standing near.

Geppetto granted the party the ability to high jump, which was awesome if you weren't scared to death of high places in the first place. They collected some nearby treasure, physically and mentally preparing themselves for the battle to come.

At first glance the chamber that Riku led them to looked as though it was made up of pink marble platforms with a green sparkly floor, but since they were in a whale, they knew better. The platforms were actually part of the whale's insides (EW!) and the floor wasn't a floor really, more like a deadly pit of stomach acid. Riku was standing on a purplish ledge near the back of the chamber.

"Let Pinocchio go, Riku!" Sora cried, drawing his Keyblade.

Riku whipped around and smirked.

"A puppet that's lost its heart to the Heartless… maybe it holds the key to helping Kairi. How about it Sora? Let's join forces to save her. We can do it together."

This was what Ryan was talking about. Katy leaned over and whispered to him softly so Riku wouldn't hear.

"I'm behind you either way, but I really don't think this is what Kairi would want."

Sora nodded and glared at Riku, holding his Keyblade threateningly.

Riku looked at him in disbelief

"What?! You'd rather fight me over a puppet that has no heart?"

"Heart or no heart, at least he still has a conscience."

"Conscience?"

"You might not hear it, but right now it's loud and clear, and it's telling me that you're on the wrong side!"

"Then you leave me no choice--"

At that moment, a monster, which looked suspiciously like the one they had fought no more than fifteen minutes ago, dropped from a hole in the ceiling. Riku seemed to disappear into thin air, leaving them to fight the monster…again.

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It took even less time then before…except this time the monster decided to explode

"RUN!" Donald yelled, him and Goofy almost halfway out the door; but Sora wasn't having it.

"Riku! Riku, where are you?!" He yelled trying to see through the exploding mess of Heartless. Katy screamed in frustration and doubled back, yanking Sora out of the way of a falling piece of debris and pulling him out of the room.

"What was that for?! He could have been in there!"

"If he was, he certainly wasn't concerned about you!"

"He's still my fried Katy, no matter what side he's on!"

"Look, I'm not telling you who and who not to be friends with. If you want to hang out with a kidnapper and a murderer go ahead, have a blast! Unfortunately it is my job to keep you alive and running around an exploding room is not was good way to expand your life span!"

Sora looked at her, confused

"Kidnapper?"

"You have no clue, Sora. No freaking clue." And with that she followed Geppetto and Pinocchio onto the small gummi ship they had fashioned and they all got out of the whale's mouth. Once they were in the safety of their own ship Katy immediately took the wheel.

"What are you doing?" Sora exclaimed.

"Driving. Last time you did, I almost lost my lunch and we ended up inside a whale. Never again."

Sora flopped down onto an empty seat pouting as Katy drove them to their next destination.

* * *

In the cabin of a pirate ship, Riku stood, fists clenched at his sides, in front of an apparently lifeless Kairi.

"So, Kairi's like a lifeless puppet now?" He asked, sounding as though he was holding back tears.

"Precisely!" Maleficent answered

"And her heart was…"

"Taken by the Heartless, no doubt."

Riku whipped around, looking desperately at Maleficent.

"Tell me, what can I do?"

"There are seven maidens of the purest heart; we call them the princesses of heart. Gather them together, and a door will open to the heart of all worlds. Within lays untold wisdom. There, you will surely find a way to recover Kairi's heart."

Maleficent smiled wickedly

"Now, I'll grant you a marvelous gift! The power to control the Heartless."

A darkness surrounded Riku, almost suffocating him. When it cleared, however he felt a strange new power flowing through him. Looking back at his motionless friend he clenched his fists again, this time in determination instead of fear.

"Soon Kairi, soon."

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**REVIEW!**


	12. Behold Atlantica & Sora's unSmoothness

**Authors Note:** **I know!** **You all must hate me! Remember when I said I had the flu? I kind of never got better. I'm so sorry I haven't posted lately! I'll try my hardest to get the rest of this up this weekend. Again, so sorry about the wait!**

Disclaimer: As compensation for being sick for over two weeks, I think I SHOULD own Kingdom Hearts…but the world is a cruel place. Still just Katy.

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The voyage to the next world was relatively quiet. Sora sulked in his seat, throwing a glare or two at Katy every couple of minutes. Katy, who was driving, gritted her teeth as she watched Donald from the corner of her eye. He was pacing back and forth just behind her, making disapproving noises in the back of his throat every time the ship swerved a little. Finally the duckling cried out.

"Land there!"

"Where? If we stop there we'll drown?" Sora said, speaking for the first time since they'd taken off.

"No we won't. I'll make it so we fit right in." Donald said, carefully supervising Katy as she landed the ship.

They were beamed off their vessel in a cloud of Donald's sparkle ridden magic, (the people aboard the Enterprise should be VERY jealous right now) and found themselves in the middle of the ocean. Looking at the others, Katy observed Donald's handiwork. Goofy had been transformed into a turtle and was currently swimming around happily, Donald was an octopus…a very angry octopus apparently since he was floating upside-down with a scowl on his face and his arms crossed. Sora and herself had been turned into mermaids…or in Sora's case merman I guess…

"Wow…this is just ironic." Katy said, laughing to herself.

"What are you talking about?" Sora asked as he tried to unsuccessfully learn how his tail worked.

"I live on Mermaid Lane, remember? This is probably the most epic moment of my life."

Sora rolled his eyes and continued trying (and failing) to swim.

Then a girl's musical voice rang out through the small grotto

"C'mon, Sebastian!"

"Ariel, wait! Slow down! Don't leave me behind!" A voice with a thick Jamaican accent answered back frantically.

A mermaid, obviously Ariel, swam into the grotto. She had long red hair and big blue eyes and was followed by a yellow and blue fish and a red crab, the ladder swimming right into Donald's upside-down scowl. The crab gave a yell and hid behind Ariel's green tail. The mermaid laughed.

"Relax, Sebastian! They don't look like one of them… Right Flounder?"

The yellow and blue fish answered nervously;

"I don't know, there's something…_weird_ about them."

Sora laughed nervously

"What do you mean?"

A frown graced Ariel's face and she began to swim in a circle around Sora and Katy.

"They do seem a little different…Where are you from?"

"Uh…were from...kinda…far away..? And were not really used to these waters." Sora said hesitating as he looked over at his companion who pinched his arm.

"Smooooooooth." She hissed before turning around and smiling sweetly, praying that she was right about the assumption she was about to make.

"Were from the north…over by Maine."

Ariel's eyes lit up.

"Really?! From all the way out there?!"

"Yep!" Katy said, mentally doing a victory dance.

"That's so far away! I hope I can visit one day."

"Sure…no problem."

Sebastian swam over to Ariel looking uneasily at the lot of them.

"Ariel, King Triton will not like this!

Ariel sighed and rolled her eyes.

"There really aren't a lot of things that daddy likes." She said, shrugging.

Katy smiled, reminded of her Mothers tendency to hate everything she did. Looking casually over to the left, her eyes widened.

"Um, Sora? I think we have a problem…"

Octopus looking Heartless began to swarm into the alcove, shutting Flounder and Sebastian into a large clam shell before turning to attack.

The four of them plus Ariel took care of them quickly. After the fight they all agreed it would probably be best if they went to see King Triton to alert him of their presence. Ariel led them to the Palace, following the gold tridents that had been scrawled onto the walls of nearby caverns. Soon they were entering Tritons Palace. They hadn't been there five minutes before a bolt of lightning shot out, narrowly missing Katy's head (as usual) and hit a group of Heartless that they hadn't heard follow them.

"That was too close." A deep, authoritative voice said.

They all swam over to stand in front of King Triton

"As long as I have my trident, I will not tolerate those creatures inside this palace."

"Daddy!" Ariel protested, trying to interrupt her father's tirade long enough to get a word in edgewise.

"Oh, Ariel! When will you listen, it's dangerous out there! Strange creatures lurk outside!"

Sebastian cleared his throat.

"Behold. You swim before the ruler of the seas: His Majesty, King Triton!"

Triton studied the four of them, his look suspicious.

"And who are they?"

"They helped us fight off those creatures!" Ariel exclaimed.

"They don't look familiar."

"We're from an ocean very far away." Sora said, nervously

"Yup. We came to find the Keyhole!" Goofy stated, smiling.

"The what?"Triton demanded

"What's that?" Ariel asked, her eyes sparkling with innocence with an undertone of mischief.

Goofy laughed.

"Well it's a--"

"There's no such thing! Certainly not here!" Triton stated firmly, interrupting.

They all took (swam?) a couple of steps back away from the throne.

"But, Daddy!" Ariel protested.

"Ariel, not another word! You are not to leave the palace, is that clear?!"

Ariel's lower lip trembled and she swam out of the palace as fast ash she could without looking back, Sora, Katy and the others following her. From his throne, Triton sighed.

"Perhaps I'm being too strict. I'm just concerned for her safety."

"Of course Your Majesty! But I must admit, now I'm quite curious about this Keyhole." Sebastian said, swimming to stand (float?) in front of King Triton.

"That need not concern you, Sebastian!" The King said much too quickly.

Apparently, he knew more then he was letting on.

"Have you anything to report?" The King asked Sebastian.

"Just as you suspected Your Majesty, they seem to be coming from Ursula's grotto."

"I knew it! That sea witch is up to no good again I see exile from the palace has taught her nothing!"

"Yes she poses serious danger." Sebastian agreed.

"And I told _you_ to keep Ariel away from such danger, did I not?" Triton asked with a glare.

"Your Majesty, please! I…uh…"

"GO!"

Sebastian let out an 'eep' and swam off after our heroes.

**

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**A/N: Yes, I know it's short! This is gonna have to hold you over until Christmas break though, I have SO much schoolwork to make up. I'm really, really, really sorry! I promise I'll make up for it. Please R&R!!!!!!!**


	13. A Mermaids Guide to Boys & Giant Squids

**Authors Note: **** Hello my wonderful readers! For those who celebrate it, I hope you had a fabulous Christmas, I certainly did! One of my presents happened to be Kingdom Hearts 358/2, and if you haven't already I strongly recommend you play it. It's a pretty awesome game. I'm going to update as much as I possibly can while I'm on break to make up for my lack of updates, in fact, we might come close to finishing the story altogether! Now without further ado, back to Atlantica!**

Disclaimer: I don't own anything recognizable. Just Katy.

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As the gang swam off to see whatever it was Ariel wanted to show them, Ursula, the resident evil sea witch, was watching them through her magic cauldron.

"Those impudent fools will never find the Keyhole! But the girl could prove quite useful, and I've got the Heartless on my side. Triton my old friend, your day is coming!"

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**

Meanwhile, our heroes were busy trying to fight off a rather large shark that was swimming around a sunken ship. Dodging snapping jaws and whipping tails, they managed to deal enough damage for it to flee to another part of the ocean. Scouring the area, they found a treasure chest that held a crystal replica of the King's trident.

"Hey, Ariel. Didn't we see a mark like this on the wall in your grotto?" Sora asked, holding it up

"Yeah, I think you're right!" Ariel exclaimed

"C'mon! Let's go see if it does anything!"

Swimming back to the grotto, they placed the crystal trident in the small impression on the wall. They waited with bated breath, when King Triton's voice boomed from behind them.

"Ariel, you've disobeyed me again! I told you not to leave the palace!"

He was even more pissed when he saw the crystal trident on the wall.

"Daddy, no!" Ariel shouted once she realized what he was going to do

But Triton shot a bold of lighting at it anyway, and it shattered.

"How could you!" She cried, swimming out of the grotto, leaving the rest of them alone with her father.

Crap.

"Young man, you are not from another ocean, you're from another world, aren't you?" Triton accused, addressing Sora.

The four of them stared at him, slack jawed. He was the only person they met so far who put two and two together without them saying anything.

"So you must be the Key Bearer." He said giving Sora a scrutinizing look before switching his gaze over to Katy

"And you must be his Protector."

That caused their jaws to go even slacker.

"How did you know?" Sora asked, stuttering a little.

"You may fool Ariel, but you don't fool me. You don't know your dorsal fin from your tail."

"Dude, he's got a point." Katy muttered, causing Triton to glare at her.

"And you haven't been doing the best job of protecting him, seeing as you allowed those creatures to follow you into my Palace."

Katy hung her head. Again, he had a point.

Triton turned his glare back to Sora and continued his rant.

"As the Key Bearer, you must already know that one must not meddle in the affairs of other worlds."

"Of course I know that…but--" Sora began to protest

"You have violated this principle. The Key Bearer shatters peace and brings ruin."

"Aw, Sora's not like that." Goofy tried to reassure him.

"I thank you for saving my daughter, but there is no room in my ocean for you or your key."

And with that, Triton left the grotto, leaving the four of them feeling like they had just been given a slap in the face.

"Dude, that guy has some issues." Katy muttered.

**

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**

Ariel had fled to a small clearing and was crying softly, mourning the loss of the crystal trident. Apparently this was the perfect time for Ursula's cronies to swoop in and save the day *note the sarcasm*

"My, my. The poor child suffers such deep sorrow." Flotsam said in his raspy voice.

He and his other half, Jetsam, began to swim slow circles around Ariel

"What a pity. If only there was something we could do..." Jetsam hissed.

"Wait, maybe _she_ could be of some help." Flotsam said

"Yes. Maybe _she_ can be of some help to you." Jetsam agreed.

"Who are you talking about?" Ariel asked.

"Oh _she_ would surely help you." Flotsam continued.

"_She'd_ make all your dreams come true." Jetsam added.

"Ursula can help." They said together.

Then in a burst of black ink, (EWWWWWWWW!) the sea witch appeared.

"You called, my dear?"

"You're Ursula? I was just wondering if--"

"It's all right. Helping others is what I live for. Let me guess. You want to see other worlds. That shouldn't be too hard. After all, your new friends came from another world."

"What?!" Ariel asked, shocked that Sora and Katy would lie to her.

"But they had special help—that mysterious key." Ursula continued.

Ariel sighed and her shoulders slumped.

"Now, now. Cheer up, sweetie. You have something special too. Now listen carefully. I think the Keyhole they seek is someplace in the Palace. Now my dear, if you can take me there without your daddy knowing, I can help you get to these other worlds you long for.

And so Ariel willingly helped Ursula get into the Palace, not realizing her mistake until it was too late. She could only stand by her wounded Father as Ursula held the trident and laughed manically.

"The trident is mine, at last! And I couldn't have done it without your help, my dear."

"Ursula, no! I didn't want this!" Ariel cried, trying to reason with the sea witch.

"Why not? Aren't you tired of following your dear daddy's orders?" She smirked and the distraught Princess

"Oh, yes. We had a deal, didn't we? Time for a little journey—to the dark world of the Heartless!"

Then Flotsam and Jetsam had to rain on her evil parade.

"We cannot find the Keyhole." Flotsam said.

"The Keyhole is not here." Jetsam agreed.

"WHAT?" Ursula yelled, outraged.

And that's when Sora and Katy burst in to save they day!! Along with the talking animals, of course.

"Why, it looks like we have company! I'm afraid you're a little late children."

"Um, did she just call us children?" Katy asked Sora.

"Yep. Pretty sure she did."

"Hey! Lady! I'm fifteen! That's three years away from eighteen! I am in no way a child!"

Sora tried and failed to suppress an eye roll.

"Not really important right now, Katy."

"Oh, right. My bad."

They turned back to the crisis at hand just in time to see Ursula disappear.

"Daddy!" Ariel exclaimed in disbelief.

"The trident…we must get it back."

"C'mon lets go!" Sora said, trying to act all authoritative.

Ariel headed him off.

"Wait, I'm going with you. My father is hurt and it's all my fault. I have to stop Ursula!"

Sora nodded and Katy put her arm around the distressed Princess.

"Don't worry. We'll stop her!"

**

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**

The party began to make their way to Ursula's grotto, which was located near the sunken ship. Sora Donald and Goofy swam ahead of the two girls, which resulted in a very awkward conversation.

"So, Sora…" Ariel began slyly.

"Yeah, what about him?" Katy asked.

"Do you like him?"

"I kinda have to. Goes along with the whole 'saving his ass' thing." Katy answered, feigning ignorance.

"No, I don't mean like that…I mean _like,_ like him."

"Um, no."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Does he like you?"

"What is this, twenty questions?"

"You didn't answer." Ariel sang, swimming in a circle almost mockingly.

"NO! I mean, I don't think so."

"I do. The way he looks at you sometimes, I wish someone would look at _me_ like that."

Katy fell silent. No, she hadn't noticed anything like that, but, then again she hadn't really been _looking_ for it. She'd been more concerned with keeping Sora alive then wondering if he liked her.

"You really think so?"

"Of course! I thought you'd already noticed."

"Nope. Been a bit preoccupied I guess."

Their conversation ended abruptly when they arrived at the sunken ship. They once again took care of the shark and then got Sebastian to open the door to Ursula's lair for them.

"Remember, she draws all of her magic from her cauldron! Dispose of the Cauldron and she'll be powerless!" Sebastian yelled after them as they swam into the monster's den.

They arrived about five minutes later, only to find the grotto seemingly empty. Then there was a flash of movement from a cave behind the cauldron.

"Come out, you can't run!" Donald yelled.

"Your time has come!" Sebastian exclaimed from atop Donald's head.

Then the battle was under way. Since Ariel couldn't use magic, she took care of Flotsam and Jetsam while Sora, Katy, and the others got Ursula. Donald and Katy shot magic into the witch's cauldron, causing it to backfire back out and hopefully strike Ursula if aimed correctly. When Ursula was paralyzed, Sora and Goofy would attack. The battle took awhile, Katy blamed it on Donald's bad aim.

"Duckling, are you kidding?! Does Ariel even look remotely like Ursula?! AIM FOR THE GIANT SQUID DAMMIT!"

"I'm trying! You could help too you know!" He fired back.

"Hello? Does it _look_ like I'm sitting here swimming around? Newsflash, I AM HELPING!"

Finally, the fight was over. Flotsam and Jetsam were defeated and disappeared into nothing while Ursula watched in fear. Then, she glared at the lot of them.

"You'll pay for this!"

She fled through a cavern, the party close in pursuit. When they finally caught up with her she had the trident tight in her grasp.

"You pathetic fools! I rule the seas now!"

She then proceeded to turn herself into an even gianter giant squid.

"The seas and all its spoils bow to me!" She exclaimed.

Sora had a plan. He sent Ariel, Donald and Goofy over to attack Ursula head on while he and Katy stayed back and shot fire at her.

"Dude, we are _so_ defying the laws of physics. I'm totally taking a picture of you doing this later to show my chemistry teacher."

Sora laughed.

"Sure, but you have to tell me who Harry Potter is. You never did." He said, dodging the giant projectiles that Ursula was hurling at them.

"Why, Sora! Are you _jealous_ of Harry Potter?"

"What? N-no!" He said, blushing.

"Ohmygod you totally are!"

Katy swam sharply to the side and got a clear shot to the side of the witch's head.

"FYI, Harry Potter is a fictional character. No need to be envious."

"I wasn't." Sora protested, but Katy caught the goofy smile on his face. She rolled her eyes, deciding not to mention it and together, she and Sora delivered the final blow.

"Hey, I think that's the first battle we fought that I didn't get injured in!" Katy exclaimed as they swam back to Triton's throne.

They returned the trident to its proper owner who apologized for his behavior before. He also revealed the location of the Keyhole to them. Turns out it was in Ariel's grotto the whole time. Go figure.

They sealed Atlantica and all was well.

"Tell me Sora, your world, what's it like?" Ariel asked.

"Oh, about that. Sorry for lying to you."

Ariel laughed.

"It's okay. Besides if you can travel to other worlds, maybe I can too. So many places I want to see. I know I'll get there some day. I'll find a way, somehow. I'm sure of it."

Ariel swam back to the Gummi teleporter with them to say goodbye. Before she left she gave Katy a hug and whispered;

"Remember what I said. He likes you, I'm sure of it."

Katy laughed a little and smiled.

"I'll remember, don't worry."

Yeah, she was pretty sure that thought was going to haunt her for a while.

**

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**

Back on the Gummi Ship the party was happily reunited with their legs, which was a relief. Katy studied the picture she took of Sora while he was a merman. It was perfect, not only was he a mythical creature, but he was shooting fire underwater.

"And Ms. Holly says that we're chemists, not magicians." Katy snickered.

"Hey, Katy?" Sora asked, nervously?

"What's up?"

"Thank you, for saving me in the Monstro. I really hope Riku didn't hurt you."

Katy smiled.

"Your welcome. And he didn't hurt me…contributed to my fear of heights, but he didn't hurt me."

Awkward silence.

"So…Harry Potter?"

Katy laughed and told Donald to drive as she filled Sora in on the wondrous tale of Hogwarts.

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**Woot! Okay, so Halloween town should be up in an hour give or take. I'm literally playing Kingdom Hearts as I write this so I don't screw anything up. It also is making it less tedious to write. Whatever works, right? Please Review! It's only five seconds of your life!**


	14. Vampires Don't Kiss Pumpkins

**Authors Note****: Halloween Town! My friends, you will want to read this chapter. I think you'll like the outcome ;)**

Disclaimer: I was hoping to receive ownership of Kingdom Hearts for Christmas…no luck. Still just Katy.

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Our wonderful heroes arrived at the next world roughly a day after they left Atlantica. Ariel's words were still floating around in Katy's head.

"_Does he like you?"_

"_What is this, twenty questions?"  
_

"_You didn't answer." Ariel sang, swimming in a circle almost mockingly._

"_NO! I mean, I don't think so."_

"_I do. The way he looks at you sometimes, I wish someone would look at _me_ like that."_

"Katy we're getting off."

Katy couldn't help but wince at his phrasing.

'_Think clean thoughts' _She thought to herself as they were beamed off the ship. Once they were on land, Katy looked around and almost screamed. They'd changed forms again. Donald was a mummy, Goofy was some sort of dead clown, and Sora was some kind of pumpkin spawn with bat wings. She then looked down at herself and squealed.

One of her life's dreams had been fulfilled.

She was a freaking vampire.

"'Kay, I lied before. THIS is the most epic moment of my life!"

Her normal purple hair was jet black and her skin was a glowing shade of nearly chalk white. She could feel that she had fangs and was working extra hard not to cut her tongue on them. She was wearing a deep purple corset dress that ended mid thigh and left just enough of her back exposed to not be considered slutty. Long story short, she was dressed to kill…no pun intended

"Duckling, this is the best thing you've ever done for me."

Donald's scowl seemed to soften a bit at her words.

"This sure is a spooky place. I'll bet the people here are scary-lookin' too." Goofy said, looking around.

"Don't worry, if they scare us, we'll scare them right back!" Donald exclaimed.

"You think so?" Goofy said hopefully, and then they started off to find some of the locals. Joy.

The entered Guillotine Square to find a swarm of Heartless…that didn't attack them. What the hell?

"That's a nice change." Sora said as they continued to look around the square.

Suddenly, a small, two-faced man stood and a raised platform and hollered.

"And now, allow me to introduce the master of terror, the King of Nightmares, Jack Skellington!"

The Heartless had lined up in front of a large well filled with a green…substance and parted away from it in a flourish to reveal a tall skinny skeleton man, a.k.a. Jack Skellington. He rose from the substance in what was obviously supposed to be a grand entrance. Obviously, the mayor thought it was,

"Bravo, Jack. Bravo! Those ghosts will be a big hit at this years Halloween!" He exclaimed, running over to the taller creature.

"Thank you, thank you. Their movement still needs work. It's not scary enough. I want to strike bone-chilling terror. I'm going to consult the doctor." Jack said, walking towards a structure near the giant guillotine.

"Then I'll go attend to the decorations!" The mayor said too enthusiastically as he scurried off.

"Okay…way to be ignored." Katy muttered to herself, looking over at Sora. He'd apparently been staring at her because he quickly looked away.

"Shall we follow him?" She called over her shoulder, already halfway to the door.

The others quickly followed.

They soon found themselves in a laboratory. A really creepy laboratory.

"Dude, this lab would raise so many ethical questions in my world." Katy said, causing the others to snicker.

They had walked in on a conversation between Jack and another man who was probably the doctor.

"I don't understand. Maybe the guidance system was damaged in the explosion." Jack said.

"Nonsense, my devices are always perfect." The doctor disagreed.

Pouring over a large book, Jack suddenly exclaimed;

"Oh, I've got it! Of course, The Heartless needs a heart! Doctor, do you think you can add a heart to that device?"

"Certainly, a hearts not all that complicated. Let's get to work."

"To make a heart first take a container with a lock…"

"We need the key to this thing first!" The doctor called out, gesturing to the locked container he had.

Katy, Donald, and Goofy all looked over at Sora.

"You're really gonna unlock it for them?" Donald asked in disbelief.

"Ethical questions, remember?" Katy added.

"Why not, if they succeed, we won't have to fight the Heartless right?"

"Yeah, and if it backfires, we might have to fight twenty times more Heartless!" Katy exclaimed.

"She has a point." Donald said.

"Thank you." Katy said happily.

"Aw…but I wanted to see the Heartless dance!"

They all stopped and tried to imagine that skeptical.

"Okay, I'm in!" Katy said brightly.

Donald sighed and slapped his forehead as Sora stepped forward and unlocked the container.

"My, that was amazing! Jack said

He looked Sora over

"Uh and you are?"

" Sora"

"And your friends?"

"Katy, Donald, and Goofy."

"Well done, all of you. I'd like for you all to be a part of this years Halloween."

"What's this Heartless doing here?" Katy asked, looking over to where a Search Ghost was strapped down to a table.

"Oh, the Heartless came to town just recently. What's frustrating is I can't get them to dance with me. So the doctor and I are trying to improve the guidance system. He's quite a genius!"

"Can he defy the laws of physics? 'Cause we can." Katy said, proudly.

"Of course he can!"

"Oh…I guess he is pretty good then."

"Okay doctor, let's continue." Jack said, turning back to the giant book.

"The ingredients for a heart: pulse, emotion, terror, fear, hope and despair. Mix them all together, and we have a heart!"

They fired up the machine, zapped the Heartless and…nothing happened.

"It failed!" The doctor shouted.

"Really, I hadn't noticed." Katy muttered

"Maybe we're missing some ingredients. Let's try adding memory." The doctor pondered out loud.

He scratched at his brain…quite literally.

"Sally! Sally! Good-for-nothing girl! Don't know why I bothered creating her. Sally's got the memory we need. See if you can track her down."

"No problem. Sora, would you and your friends like to come along?" Jack asked.

"Sure."

And so they set out to find the ever elusive Sally. Dun, dun, dunnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.

As they left the lab, the mayor, now using his other head came running at them shouting in distress

"Jack, Jack! We have a major crisis! The Heartless are completely out of control, we can't stop them!"

"Uh, oh." Katy said softly as Sora pouted.

"I guess we're not gonna get to see them dance, huh?"

Katy placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Maybe there is still hope."

"Hmmm maybe our experiment triggered something. Don't worry, mayor everything will be fine, you have nothing to worry about." Jack reassured the agitated, two-faced man.

"I guess we better hurry and find Sally." Katy said

"You're right, let's go!"

**

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**

After fighting off at least 50 Heartless, they'd established that Sally wasn't in the square. The decided to clear out the Graveyard and search for her there, which at this rate, should take, oh, I don't know, about an hour. Stupid Search Ghosts.

When they'd finished off the Graveyard Heartless, which had consisted not only of Search Ghosts, but of mummies as well, a ghost dog with a red nose rose out of a nearby grave.

"Ohmygosh! He's so cute!" Katy exclaimed.

"Zero, have you seen Sally anywhere?"

The dog flew around another gravestone and a girl that looked like a scary version of a rag doll stepped out from behind it.

"Is something wrong, Jack?"

"No, everything's great! We're going to have the best Halloween ever all we need now is your memory."

"Memory? You mean this?" Sally asked, holding up a dead-ish looking flower.

"What is it?" Sora whispered.

"It's a Forget-me-not. Or at least it used to be." Katy whispered back.

"How'd you know that?"

"They're my favorite flower… when they're not dead I mean."

Sally handed Jack the flower, looking reluctant.

"Jack, I have a bad feeling about this. Why don't you try something else? There's still time."

"Nothing can beat what I've got planned. Once we give the Heartless a heart, they'll dance just as I envision it. Trust me; you're going to love it!"

Sally didn't look too sure about that, and she followed them out. Once the graveyard was empty, a large coffin in the back started to shake and out jumped our three favorite people (not).

"Lock!"

"Shock!"

"Barrel!"

"Did you hear that?" Barrel asked

"Yeah, I sure did! A heart! What should we do?" Lock asked.

"Gosh, you really are stupid. Isn't it obvious?!" Shock said with an eye roll.

"Tell Oogie Boogie." They said in unison. Oh, joy.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the Lab, the gang gave Dr. Finklestein the forget-me-not.

"Yes, this is it. Now just one more ingredient. We need "surprise" to complete the heart. The mayor should know where it is."

"Typical. We get one thing for the guy and suddenly we're his errand crew. Why am I not surprised?" Katy sighed

"Eh, it shouldn't take that long. The mayor knows where it is."

"The guy who has the split personality? Yeah, _that_ will be easy."

They set off, not knowing they were the subject of conversation elsewhere.

**

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Oogie Boogie was nothing more than a giant potato sack…at least on the outside. Ever seen a potato sack laugh? It's a pretty disturbing sight.

"A heart? That bonehead Jack is really making a heart? I'll be jiggered, that works for me. Ohhhh when I get my hands on that--"

He stopped and looked at where the ends of the potato sack met at his upper torso.

"Well, I've got no hands…but I'm still gonna nab that heart and control the Heartless!" He declared, laughing maniacally, leaving Lock, Shock, and Barrel quivering in fear in the corner.

**

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The hunted around for the mayor in the Guillotine Square and the Graveyard, but so far no luck.

"We should check the Boneyard." Jack suggested.

"Sounds good, how do we get there?" Sora asked

Jack's answer was jumping down a coffin at the back of the cemetery. Donald and Goofy shrugged and followed him. Sora was about to follow, when he saw Katy sitting on another coffin.

"What's up?"

Katy smiled sadly.

"I've done enough falling in this lifetime. Go on without me."

Sora thought for a minute, weighing pros and cons before grinning and sitting next to her.

"I think they can handle it."

"Are you sure? Because I'm fine, really."

"Yeah, it's no big deal."

Katy nodded and the two of them waited.

A cold wind rushed through the trees and Katy crossed her arms to stay warm since her dress lacked sleeves.

"God, this place gives me the creeps." She said, shivering and looking at her feet.

Sora wrapped his arm around her shoulders and she jerked her head up to look at him. It was too dark to tell if he was blushing but she was pretty sure he was.

"I thought you liked being a vampire." Sora said, his tone playful to try and cover up the awkwardness.

Katy laughed and shook her head.

"No I do, I just have a bad feeling about all of this. I mean, helping Jack give the Heartless hearts? It just seems to good to be true, and its way too easy."

Sora shrugged.

"I dunno. Maybe we just caught a lucky break."

"I hope so."

Katy was unconsciously leaning further into Sora's chest. She told herself that it was just because he was so warm, but Ariel's voice was still nagging in her head.

"_The way he looks at you sometimes, I wish someone would look at _me_ like that."  
_

Pushing the voice aside, she decided to just go with it. She closed her eyes and sighed contentedly.

"Tired?" Sora asked.

"Mmhm."

She started to get that prickly feeling on the back of her neck, like when someone was watching her. Startled, she opened her eyes and saw Sora's blue ones less then five inches away.

"Are you trying to make me more paranoid?" She joked, trying not to notice how close his lips were to hers.

He started to lean in. Closer, closer and then…

Donald cleared his throat loudly from behind them and they jumped apart.

Long awkward silence.

"So…what happened?" Sora asked, looking at his feet.

Jack held out a Jack-in the-box and grinned.

"Let's go back to see Finklestein."

They all agreed and began to trudge back to Guillotine Square.

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**A/N****: Don't hate me; we're not out of the Boneyard yet. Next one should be up later tonight. Right, now however, I'm going to see Sherlock Holmes and you're going to review. Ready? Go!**


	15. Bratty Kids and Creepy Bugs

**Authors Note**: **The conclusion of Halloween Town. Enjoy!**

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I didn't obtain ownership of Kingdom Hearts in the two hours I was at the movies. I just own Katy.

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They made their way back to Dr. Finklestein's lab, shaking off the Heartless as they went. The tension between Katy and Sora, however, could not be shook. All they could both do was hope that the awkwardness between them wouldn't affect anything important, like saving the worlds for instance. They entered the lab and showed Finklestein the Jack-in-the-box.

"Yes, this is it." He said, adding the new component to the mechanical heart.

"There we go. Now it should work perfectly."

As the doctor went to hook the heart up to the machine, he was foiled by our favorite bratty kids. Barrel dove in front of the doctor's wheelchair, causing him to drop the Heart which Barrel then picked up and threw to Lock, who passed it to Shock. Then all three children ran out of the lab, tittering as they went, leaving them all wondering what just happened.

"Okay, did anyone else not see that coming?" Katy asked.

The other four nodded.

"Okay, good. Least I'm not the only one.

They all then proceeded to run out of the room after the three kids.

"We lost them." Sora said as they looked around the square.

Jack called Zero over to him.

"Zero, after them, quick!"

The dog obliged and they followed him, dodging the Heartless as they went. He lead them to the Graveyard and then down the coffin into the bone yard. Katy stopped short and shook her head. She couldn't do it. She'd been pushed off the monkey bars, fallen hundreds of feet out of the Gummi ship, been thrown up and then fallen down onto a cliff…by a gorilla, and been suspended in mid-air by a whales organ gone Heartless, and freefell down through said whales innards. She was done with falling. Done.

"Katy. C'mon!" Sora said, pulling her arm.

"I can't." She said, backing away from the coffin.

"You have to!"

"I can't! I'm physically unable!"

"Just close your eyes."

"That makes it worse!"

"Then look at me."

She looked up at him and saw that he was holding his hand out to her. Sighing, she took it and he led her back over to the Boneyard's entrance.

"Just keep looking at me."

"Can we just go already? I want to get it over with."

Sora nodded and pulled her into his arms like he was hugging her. She kept her eyes trained on his and nodded. Sora jumped down into the coffin and Katy couldn't help but scream. When they finally landed, she noted the fact that if Sora wasn't holding her up, she would be lying on the ground. Her legs had been turned to jelly.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, spectacular. Sorry for blowing out your eardrum."

"No problem."

The two teens followed the others into a rather large pumpkin tomb. The Heartless seemed to triple in number and it took them the better part of an hour to defeat all of them and finally make their way to a large manor at the end of the Moonlit Bridge.

"I knew Oogie Boogie was behind this!" Jack said as they approached the door to the mansion. Once inside, they started their perilous journey up rickety wood planks until they reached the Evil Playroom. They arrived just in time to see Shock throw the mechanical heart into a chute on the wall. The kids' eyes widened when they saw who the intruders were and they began to scramble about the room. Katy smirked and drew her blades.

"This is going to be fun."

Loch was the hardest to get. He just kept on jumping and after awhile, Katy started getting dizzy. Finally though, they managed to tire out all three.

"We were just following orders! Oogie Boogie told us to steal the heart! It's all Barrels' fault! It was his idea to tell Oogie Boogie about the heart!" Shock protested.

"Yeah, that's right!" Lock agreed.

"B-But you guys said--" Barrel began,

"You should be ashamed!" Shock wailed.

On that note, the party only had one option. Find Oogie Boogie.

**

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**

After they started the manor's machinery, it was pretty easy to find the hidden platform that led to Oogie's lair. Once they entered, they saw him holding the mechanical heart.

"Oogie, you've caused enough trouble, now hand over the heart!" Jack demanded

"You want it? Well then come on over and get it!"

He then proceeded to throw the heart up into the air and swallow it.

"Now, let's see if I can get their attention. Oh, Heartless!"

A single bat Heartless flew over to him. Oogie frowned.

"This is it?" He demanded angrily.

"Nobody disrespects me! Nobody!"

The battle consisted of Oogie tossing a dice to determine what their fate would be. They spent a lot of time dodging giant blades and saws. Once they got the pattern down it was pretty easy. Almost too easy…The potato sack that was Oogie Boogie ripped open and out avalanched hundreds upon thousands of bugs. Katy shrieked and backed away as the creepy crawlies shriveled up and disappeared.

The battle was over as far as they could tell, so the five began to make their way out of the manor. Sora looked anxiously at Katy who was paler than her vampire complexion and looked like she was turning green.

"You okay?" He asked, concerned.

"No. I'm probably hundreds of feet up and I'm still seeing the image of bugs falling all over me. God, it feels like I have stuff crawling on me." She shuddered.

"Just hang in there, we're leaving soon anyway."

"Good. We need to go to a nice safe world."

Sora laughed.

"I wish."

They exited the manor and started towards the Moonlit Bridge when the ground began to shake and evil laughter filled the air. They all stared in horror as Oogie Boogie's house came alive and began attacking them.

They quickly realized realizing that they had to attack the orbs of darkness which were placed around the manor, some of them ridiculously high up. They were almost done, when Sora lost his footing and fell over the side of the manor, holding on to the thin wooden ledge to keep himself up. Just as he lost his grip, Katy grabbed his wrist.

"Give me your other hand!"

Sora tried to oblige, but he couldn't reach.

"I can't!"

Katy took a deep breath before leaning further over the edge to gain more leverage. She was able to pull Sora up and away from the worst of it, but they both wound up falling the rest of the way to the ground, Sora landing on top of Katy, knocking the wind out of her.

On the bright side, Oogie's manor was dead.

Katy opened her eyes and took some deep breaths to get her lungs started again.

"I'm good, I'm good." She assured the others, still panting from lack of oxygen.

"That was close." Sora said, looking up to the spot where he'd been hanging before.

"Yeah, way too close." Katy agreed as she watched Sora seal the world's Keyhole.

**

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**

Back at Dr. Finklestein's lab, Jack had made the decision to cancel the Halloween festivities for the year in order to fix up all of the Damage Oogie Boogie had caused.

"Sally, why didn't I listen to you?" Jack said, hanging his head.

"Don't feel bad, Jack. We'll come up with another plan for Halloween. Next time we'll do it together."

Jack thanked them all profusely for their help and they modestly waited until he was done before returning to the Gummi ship.

Katy was replaying the incident on the manor before in her head. She'd almost been too late. If she'd waited a half a second longer, hesitated even a little, Sora would be kersplatted where Oogie's manor once stood. She felt like she was going to be sick. It was close. Too close. Everything was almost ruined, the worlds could have been thrown into turmoil and it would have been all her fault. She thought about what almost happened in the graveyard earlier. Was it selfish of her to think that she would never know how it would feel to kiss him if she hadn't acted when she did? She was snapped out of her thoughts by the subject of them.

"Hey, we're leaving."

Katy nodded and followed him, silently contemplating. It could jeopardize their objectives. Things could get so awkward that they wouldn't be able to work together like they did. She might lose him as a friend. It all swirled around in her head along with the events in the graveyard. She realized that even though she was supposed to be protecting him, he made her feel safe. The job went both ways. This thought stopped her in her tracks and suddenly nothing mattered.

"Sora!" She called out, running to catch up to him.

He turned around and cocked an eyebrow at her, but didn't have a chance to say anything before she threw her arms around him and pressed her lips firmly against his. Sora's eyes widened, but he made no effort to pull away; in fact, he kissed her again and again and again until up was down and down was up. Finally they pulled away, both of them blushing slightly.

"I wanted to do that for a really long time." Sora confessed, looking away.

Katy laughed.

"Me too."

Sora grinned cheerily at her and took her hand, leading them both back to the ship.

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**A/N****: I always get nervous with writing kissing scenes. Too mushy? Not mushy enough? Please tell me! Review please!**


	16. Pixie Dust May Cause Levitation

**Authors Note**: **Hello again my lovely readers! First off I'd like to thank my newest reviewer ****The Eccentric Otaku**** for taking the time to review. I'd also like to thank all of you that have put this story in your favorites and story alert. I would write your pennames, but I accidentally deleted the e-mails. Anyway, I'll probably have all of Neverland up today and if I'm in a good mood maybe I'll post Traverse Town and the Olympus Coliseum. If not, they will both be up tomorrow. Happy Reading!**

Disclaimer: If I owned Kingdom Hearts, I'd recreate the game to go along with this story. I'll let you know when that happens. Until then, just Katy.

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They'd been flying for about three days without any sign of a new world and the passengers on the Gummi Ship were beginning to get impatient. Since bouncing and singing were still prohibited and looking out the window had grown boring, Katy had taken to pacing the length of the ship, sighing heavily every once in awhile.

"Hey, uh, there's a big ship catching up to us." Goofy said nervously.

At this promise of excitement, Katy rushed over and pressed her face against the window.

"Hey, he's right!"

"Stop gawking, that's a pirate ship!"

The ship loomed closer, and Katy's eyes widened as she realized what was happening.

"It's going to ram us!" Sora said, stating the obvious.

So the larger ship overtook them and before he knew it, Sora found himself alone. He walked across the deck of the large ship, looking for any sign of his friends, when a familiar voice spoke.

"I didn't think you'd come, Sora."

Sora whipped around and saw, yep, you guessed it, Riku. Hooray!

"Good to see you again."

"W-Where are Donald, Goofy and Katy?"

"Are they that important to you? More important than old friends? Instead of worrying about them, you should be asking…about her." Riku ranted, stepping aside to reveal Kairi.

If Sora was just a smidge smarter, he would have realized that there was something wrong. Kairi _was_ on the deck of the ship physically, but that's about it. She was sitting like a broken doll, eyes staring lifelessly downwards. If he did notice that something was wrong, he didn't show it, his eyes widened only in hope when he saw his other friend.

" Kairi!"

"That's right. While you were off goofing around, I finally found her."

Sora surged forward, but was thwarted by a shiny, silver hook. The hook was attached to a man, who was obviously the Captain of the ship.

"Not so fast. No shenanigans on my ship, boy." He sneered, smiling evilly.

"Riku, why are you siding with the Heartless?"

"The Heartless obey me now Sora. Now I have nothing to fear."

"You're stupid! Sooner or later they'll swallow your heart."

"Not a chance. My hearts too strong."

"Riku…"

"I've picked up a few other tricks as well, like this for instance."

Riku smirked and raided his hand, causing a shadow of Sora to materialize.

"You can go see your friends now." Riku said emotionlessly, spitting the word friends out like a curse.

A panel of the ship's deck beneath Sora's feet opened, dropping him to the decks below. Riku turned to Captain Hook.

"Let's get under way, already…and keep Sora away from Kairi until we're ready to land."

"Wait! What about the other girl?" Hook's first mate, Smee asked, a tad concerned.

Riku smirked.

"I'll deal with her." He said, turning and leaving Hook and Smee to their own devices.

Needless to say, The Captain was _not_ a happy camper.

"That scurvy brat thinks he can order me around!"

"What shall we do, Captain Hook?" Smee asked, nervously

"Nothing! The hold is crawling with Heartless! Let _them_ keep an eye on the brats."

"But, Captain! You-know-who is also down--"

"Shhhhh…did you hear that, Smee? Oh, that dreadful sound!"

"No, Captain?"

"Are you quite sure? Did I imagine it? Oh my poor nerves…"

And with that, the two of them exited to go find something productive to do.

**

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**

"You don't say?" Goofy asked.

"Yeah! It was defiantly Kairi! I finally found her!" Sora exclaimed.

"All right! Then let's go up and talk to her!"

"Yeah!"

"Sounds great! Okay, but first…how 'bout getting off!" Donald yelled.

"Oh, Sorry." Sora snickered.

Once the three got themselves together, Sora looked around, confused.

"Where's Katy?"

"Uh, we though she was with you." Goofy said, scratching his head."

Sora started to feel uneasy. Riku had kidnapped Katy once; he could probably do it again. Plus now he could control the Heartless. Not good.

"Okay, we have to find her before we talk to Kairi."

"Fine, but first we have to get out of here." Donald said, tapping his foot impatiently.

Sora sighed and began to look for a way out.

**

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**

Katy banged on the infernal wooden door in front of her, willing it to splinter into a zillion pieces.

"GET ME OUT OF HERE!" She shrieked. The unsteady swaying of the ship was driving her nuts and every step she took was a stumble. She did not do well on boats.

"As entertaining as this is, you can stop now. No one is opening that door until I tell them too."

Katy sighed at the voice.

"Look, pretty boy. As flattering as it is to have you holding me captive all the time, I don't have time for this right now. I suggest you open this door right now, or I'm going to smack you into then next millennium. Besides, I really hate when boys pine after me, it's unattractive."

Riku laughed humorlessly and the sound caused goosebumps to break across Katy's arms.

"Sorry, I think I'd like it better if you were in this room. Besides, I thought you would be thanking me. I found your friend for you." He smirked, nodding towards a spot behind her.

Katy whipped around and gasped. Ryan was sitting on a chair in a corner of the room staring blankly t the floor.

"Ryan?!"

She got no response. Startled, she walked over to him and shook his shoulder lightly.

"Ryan?"

He just continued to stare, not acknowledging her presence.

"What did you do to him?" She asked, her voice cutting dangerously low.

"I didn't do anything. I found him wandering around this world. Once he told me who he was I brought him here. The Heartless did the rest."

If there was one thing that Katy Tannith didn't usually do, it was crying. She hated it. It made her feel like a spoiled brat and there were better ways of expressing emotion. Right now though, looking at the boy who had been like her older brother ever since kindergarten, when he kicked Joey Ramirez in the shins for taking her favorite pink shovel she couldn't help but break her resolve. Tears fell freely down her face as she thought back. Ryan had always been there, whether it was opening his window so she could get a couple of more hours of sleep, letting her bitch to him for hours about the self-esteem dropping comments her mother would make to her. It was He's sacrificed himself for her, and she knew that if he hadn't she would probably be where he was now. He'd given everything for her, and now she was going to return the favor…by making the person who did this to him suffer. With a feral shriek she threw herself at Riku. The other teen's eyes widened, not expecting it and they both fell to the ground, Katy straddling his chest and punching every inch of him she could reach.

"YOU SICK, EVIL, BASTRD! YOU DID THIS, YOU FREAKING DID THIS!"

Riku tried to pry her off, but she held him down and continued punching. By now his nose was bleeding, most likely from being broken, but she kept at it. A red haze formed over her eyes, fueled by her tears and her memory's of her best friend. Finally she stopped punching, instead she grabbed a handful of his hair and whispered in his ear;

"I swear I will kill you for this. If I can't fix him, I will kill you. Do you even know how good of a person he was? He makes Gandhi look like the freaking devil. Don't worry about Sora anymore; I'm your biggest problem now." She let go of his hair, his head falling back with a dull thunk.

She took several deep breaths to try and pull herself together, but no avail, the tears kept coming and her shoulders shook with the force of them. She heard Riku stand behind her and take a few steps towards her. He turned to look at him to see that he had a frown on his face; in fact she was pretty sure she could see the good and evil battling in his eyes. Evil prevailed and he glared at her before opening a dark corridor and disappearing through it, leaving her alone. This was her cue to break down completely. She fell to the floor, not caring enough to get up, still sobbing uncontrollably. She was startled when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned around sharply to see a boy dressed all on green down to the tights he wore. She would have thought he was Link from the Zelda games had his hair been blonde instead of red.

"Hey, it'll be okay. There's still hope for him, you'll see."

"Um, thanks…?"

"Peter."

"Peter. I'm Katy."

"Nice to meet you…although it could have been under better circumstances. I'm sure you're not always this wishy-washy. I'm guessing he was a good friend of yours?"

"Yeah, more like family really."

"Is that other boy your friend too? The one with the talking animals following him around?"

Katy smiled a little at his description.

"Yeah, he is." She said softly, furiously wiping the moisture from her face.

"Okay, stay here and I'll go get him for you."

"You say "stay here" like I have a choice."

"There's always a way out. Just sit tight while I go get your friends"

Peter left and Katy wandered over to where Ryan was.

"I'm sorry, Ryan. I'm so, so sorry I couldn't find you sooner."

She kissed her friend on the forehead and sat back down on the floor, waiting restlessly for Peter to come back with Sora and the others.

**

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**

Sora was examining the small window in the only door out of the room they were trapped in, silently willing it to grow larger when someone cleared their throat behind him.

"How ya doin' there? Looking for a way out?

"Who are you?" Goofy asked

"I'm the answer to your prayers."

Donald scowled at him, suspiciously

"Okay, fine, have it your way then."

"But you're stuck in here too, aren't you?"

Peter crossed his arms.

"No, I'm just waiting for someone."

"Who?"

As though Sora has triggered a hidden cue, A small ball of light flew at him and began to spin circles around his head.

"Tinkerbell, what took you so long?

The ball of light transformed into a tiny fairy, also clothed in green. Apparently she answerd Peter because then he asked;

"Great, so you found Wendy? Hold on, there was _another_ girl there too? Are you crazy?! There's no way I'm gonna leave Wendy there!"

Tinkerbell crossed her arms and pouted.

"Aha! She must be pretty jealous." Donald snickered.

Tink glared at Donald and then proceeded to smack him upside the beak before flying out the tiny window on their only escape route.

"C'mon, Tink! Open up the door!"

"Ahem!"

Peter turned to see Sora and the others looking at him expectantly.

"Peter Pan." He introduced, holding out his hand.

"I'm Sora." Sora answered reaching out to shake it.

Peter snatched his hand back

"Okay, We're in this together, but only until we find Wendy…and after I take you to your friend Katy."

"You know where Katy is?!"

"Yep, and she's pretty upset. That guy Riku is a real piece of work."

"Tell me about it." Sora said rolling his eyes and following Peter out the door.

**

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**

Katy hadn't been waiting more than five minutes when the cavalry arrived. Peter came back in grinning smugly at her with Sora Donald and Goofy following.

"See? I found them easy! Tink helped of course" Peter said, gesturing to the pouting fairy.

Yep, with some hair dye, he could defiantly pass as Link.

"Katy! What happened?" Sora asked, noticing the tear tracks on her cheeks.

Katy pointed over to where Ryan was sitting.

"Is that…?" Sora asked

"Yeah."

"Katy, that's great!"

"LOOK at him Sora, really look at him."

Sora walked over and poked at Ryan's arm, getting no response.

"I don't--"

"It was Riku, Sora! He found Ryan, brought him here and just let the Heartless take his heart! It's all my fault! I shouldn't have even mentioned him in the Monstro!"

Katy started crying again and Sora clenched his fists at his sides. Riku had totally and completely gone over to the dark side He walked back over to Katy and put his arm around her.

"It'll be okay. We'll take him to Traverse Town, Maybe someone there can help."

Katy nodded and let Sora help her up. He kissed her soundly on the lips before taking her hand and pulling her out of the room, promising that they'd come back for Ryan later.

In the back of his mind he was wondering if Kairi had met the same fate as Ryan.

The five of them then began their quest to find Wendy

They made their way through the hold of the ship, hacking at the Heartless as they went. Every so often the antisora would make an appearance. Sora filled Katy in on how he'd com e about earlier, which made her, if possible, even more pissed at Riku. As they reached one of the ship's upper levels, Donald asked Peter a very obvious question

"How come you can fly?"

He gave Donald a look.

"Everyone can fly! You want to try?"

Not waiting for an answer, Peter whistled for his fairy friend.

"Aw, haven't you cooled off yet, Tink?" He asked with an eye roll.

Tinkerbell sprinkled some of her glittery magic on the four of them.

"Just a little bit of pixie dust. There. Now you can fly!"

Donald began to flap his wings, only to fall on his face which caused Katy and Tink to break out in hysterical laughter.

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	17. The Croc Always Trumps the Captain

**Authors Note: ****Hello, and a very Happy New Year to all of you! Thanks ever so much to my new reviewers: ****ZuZu-Chan** and **Twilghtfan08.**** Other big thanks to ****HittingXHighXnotes ****and once again, ****ZuZu-Chan ****for putting this fic on story alert/favorite story/author alert etc. ****Yes, I haven't been posting, New Years prep was a drag. I have nothing better to do for the next three days besides write, so I'm going to try to get as much done as possible. I do know exactly how this story is going to end and I am planning to make it part of a trilogy. With that being in the near future, lets get on with the present shall we? First chappie of 2010!!!!**

Disclaimer: I STILL don't own Kingdom Hearts…stop bugging me about it. I just own Katy and Ryan.

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**On one of the upper decks…**

"What?! You mean Wendy isn't one of the chosen ones?" Hook asked Riku, outraged.

"There are seven, supposedly, and Maleficent says she's not one of them. Hoist anchor as soon as possible. Leave all of the dead weight behind…including her."

"After the trouble of capturing her? And why those seven? What is Maleficent planning anyway?"

"Who knows? As long as it means getting Kairi's heart back, I couldn't care less"

"You're wasting your time. The Heartless have devoured that girl's heart. I'll stake me other hand it's lost forever."

"I will find it, no matter what."

"What about that boy? The one we found on the mainland?"

"Keep him here until I say otherwise."

"But you said…"

"And _now_ I'm saying to keep him here."

"Why did you capture him anyway? What's the difference?

"I captured him because I though he would be useful. Besides, it's none of your business."

They were interrupted by Smee's voice over the ship's intercom.

"Uh, Captain? "

Hook stormed over to the odd-looking communication device

"What?!"

"The prisoners have escaped; what's more Peter Pan is with them!"

"Blast that Peter Pan! All right, then! Bring the hostage to me cabin, Smee! Hop to it!"

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Our heroes had made there way out of the freezer room and found themselves in a smaller cabin just above it. Tinkerbell flew over to a metal grate on the ceiling.

"What is it, Tink?" Peter asked, flying over.

A girl's voice called down from the room above.

"Peter? Peter Pan?"

"Wendy!"

Wendy was probably Katy and Sora's age, maybe a bit younger. She wore a plain blue dress that matched her eyes.

"Peter, please hurry! The pirates are coming!"

"What?! I'll be right up there, just hold on!"

"Wendy?" Sora asked tentatively

"Yes?"

"Is there another girl in there with you?"

"Oh, why, yes, but she seems to be asleep. She hasn't budged an inch."

"Kairi? Kairi!" Sora called out, willing his friend to answer.

Katy didn't have the heart to tell him that Kairi was probably just like Ryan. It explained why Riku had been so defensive about her when she brought it up in the Monstro. Suddenly Kairi's figure disappeared from sight and Wendy gave a shriek.

"Wendy?!" Peter called out, worried.

He turned to the four of them.

"Hey, let's get up there!"

They found a hole in another nearby grate and jumped through, climbing the ladder in the next room. They entered to find Riku holding a still "sleeping" Kairi.

"Riku, wait!" Sora cried out

The teen just smirked and stepped back into a dark corridor, leaving them with the Antisora. For a few moments, they all just stood there, and then the shadow jumped in and attacked. Despite what he may have thought, fighting himself was not as easy as Sora originally thought. The Antisora's attacks were more or less the same as his and it was hard to find it's weak points because then he'd be exploiting his own. Katy was also having some issues; she couldn't attack the shadow at all. Period. Every time she swung her Keyblades at it, they just bounced off as if there was an invisible barrier. After about twenty tries, it began to make sense. She was there to protect Sora. Even though the Antisora was just a shadow of the real one, it was still technically him, ergo, she couldn't hurt him. She decided to help by distracting the copy while Sora and the others swung away at it. After awhile, they succeeded in defeating it and the Antisora disappeared. Peter had run over to Wendy, who was lying in the corner hopefully unconscious and not…heartless.

"Wendy?" Peter asked, trying to get her to come to while Tinkerbell flitted around them.

"C'mon, Tink, not now." He grumbled, pulling the English girl into his arms. He turned to the others

"Well, this is as far as I can go. I gotta help Wendy." He said, flying off.

Sora, Katy and the others made their way to the deck…where Captain Hook was waiting for them.

"Quite a codfish, that Riku, running off with that girl without saying goodbye."

"Run off where? Tell me, where did he go?"Sora demanded

"To the ruins of Hallo Bastion, where Maleficent resides…but you won't be going there"

Katy shuddered as a sharp pain prickled in her head at the name.

Captain Hood held up a glass lantern in which Tinkerbell was imprisoned inside.

"Unless you intend to leave your little pixie friend behind?"

Sora sighed and let the Keyblade disappear from his hand. Hook summoned his band of Heartless and they stood menacingly with their swords. Katy, refusing to back down, kept hers out menacingly.

"Hand over your Keyblades and I'll spare your lives. Be glad I'm merciful, unlike the Heartless. So, which will it be? Your Keyblades, or the plank?!"

On the word "plank" Hook looked behind him and gasped.

"It's him! The crocodile that took me hand! Oh, Smee, he's after me other hand! I can't stay here! Go away! Oh, I can't stand the sight of him! Smee, you take care of them!"

With that, Smee took hold of Katy's arm and pulled her over to the plank. The Heartless stepped closer and she backed up to the edge. Sora was trying to fight them off to get to her but there were too many of them.

"Katy, hold on!" He called out, still swinging away

Then Peter's voice was whispering in her ear.

"Fly, Katy! Just believe and you can do it!"

Katy grinned at the Heartless, closed her eyes and let herself fall of the plank.

"No!" she heard Sora cry from the deck.

She freefell for a couple of seconds and then she felt her body get lighter and lift itself up. She giggles uncontrollably at the looks on everyone's faces and turned just in time to see peter swipe the lantern holding Tink captive away from Smee. Katy and Peter then landed side by side on the deck in front of a gob smacked Sora who was looking at them with a mixture of disbelief and humor. Peter let Tink free from her prison.

"You didn't think I'd leave you guys and Tink behind, did you?" He asked, smirking good naturedly at Sora, who grinned.

The party then proceeded to take out all of the Heartless on the ship's deck, which was much easier with their newfound ability to fly. When they were all gone, Peter knocked on the door of the Captain's cabin.

"Is that you, Smee? Did you finish them off?

Peter laughed and held his nose, causing his voice to sound exactly like Smee's.

"Aye, Captain. They walked the plank, every last one of them."

Katy was doubled over, laughing hysterically while Sora had his hand over his mouth trying to keep her from giving them away, also laughing hysterically.

Hook came out and looked around, a look of triumph on his face…until Peter poked him with his dagger .

"Peter Pa—Blast you!" He spat outraged

"Ready to make a splash, you codfish. Now it's time for you to walk the plank."

Besides his fancy shmancy sword moves, Hook wasn't that much trouble. Donald Goofy and Sora fought him on the ground while Katy and Peter shot magic at him from above. When the battle was over, Hook was sent overboard and was at the mercy of the crocodile, which chased him away.

Back on the deck, Sora was leaning over the railing, looking glum.

"Uh, Kairi couldn't wake up, so maybe she's really lost her--" Goofy started

"Shhhhh!" Donald scolded while Katy elbowed him.

"Not helping." She said through her teeth.

"Sora?" Peter asked

"I still can't believe it. I really flew! Wait till I tell Kairi. I wonder if she'll believe me. Probably not."

"You can bring her to Neverland sometime. Ten she can try it herself." Peter said, smiling

"If you believe, you can do anything, right? I'll find Kairi, I know I will. There's so much I want to tell her—about flying, the pirates and everything else that's happened."

Katy smiled at Sora and he returned it.

"C'mon Katy let's go get Ryan to the ship."

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Once Ryan was safely on the Gummi Ship they went back down to meet Peter.

"Tink says there's something at the Clock Tower. We should go check it out."

They flew over the streets of London and met Wendy at the Clock Tower.

"One of the clocks isn't working. It should say midnight, but it's off. The clocks are _never_ off. It's strange."

Sora and the others flew up the faulty clock and changed the time. The space the minute hand left behind began to sparkle and revealed the world's Keyhole which Sora proceeded to seal.

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"_Hey, Sora? When we grow up, let's get off this island. We'll go on real adventures, not this kid stuff."_

"_Sure, but isn't there anything fun to do __now?__" Sora asked, impatiently._

"_Hey, you know the new girl, at the mayor's house? Did you hear she arrived on the night of the meteor shower? The younger Riku asked._

_Sora ran in front of him, but he took one last look at the door. A keyhole had mysteriously appeared on it, Riku approached it to get a closer look…_

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Riku landed on the floor in front of Maleficent, breathing hard and occasionally gasping in pain.

"It was reckless to bring her here without at least using a vessel. Remember, relying too heavily on the dark power can cost you your heart." Maleficent said, looking down emotionlessly and the wounded teen at her feet.

Riku stood up and turned around sharply when he heard a noise.

"A castaway, though his world perished, his heart did not. When we took the princess from his castle, he apparently followed her here through sheer force of will. But fear not, no harm will come to you. He is no match for your power."

"My power?"

"Yes, the untapped power that lies within you. Now, child, it's time you awakened that power and realized your full potential."

Riku was then engulfed in a dark force, which made him even more powerful than before.

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"Peter, are you really going back to Neverland?" Wendy asked

"Afraid so, but we can see each other any time! As long as you don't forget about Neverland that is."

Tink was pouting in the background, causing Donald to laugh, holding his hands in front of his beak to prevent being struck by the pixie.

"Oh, boy. She's getting steamed again." Peter said as Tink began to fly circles around Sora. He walked over to Katy, Tink following.

"Do me a favor, look after her for me will ya?"

Katy's eyes widened

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Tink can keep you company 'till your friend gets better."

Katy smiled and hugged Peter.

"Thanks."

After saying their goodbyes to Wendy, the four of them, plus Tink entered the Gummi Ship and took off to Traverse Town at Donald's request.

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**Please R&R!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**


	18. Broken Homes Lead to Nervous Breakdowns

**Authors Note****: I really would have liked to get this chapter out on Wednesday, but schoolwork kept me from doing so. First things first, I'd like to thank from the bottom of my heart my new reviewers ****chococookiesld****, ****VanVurmer****, and ****SexyZexy****. I'd also like to thank ****Amy-chan123****, ****Worm the Green Lantern****, ****SexyZexy****, ****Bubbles of Ebil****, ****QueenoftheKill****, and ****Sakura the cherry alchemist**** for adding this sort to their favorites/story alert and for adding me to their favorite authors/author alert. It really means so much to me that you all like this story. So I've done the math and there's only six worlds plus the epilogue left. I'm determined to finish this by the end of January so updates will generally be on Wednesday and Sunday. I've decided to skip the second part of the Olympus Coliseum. It's kinda pointless anyway, and you all know what happens. This one is kinda longish so enjoy!!**

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts in any way, but my unadulterated randomness is my own. That and my wonderful OC's Katy and Ryan.

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Sora watched Katy nervously from his seat on the Gummi ship. They were warping back to Traverse Town, a trip that usually took a couple of minutes, but due to the large distance, it was taking a bit longer. Katy had volunteered to monitor the ship's controls in order to give everyone else a break. They all knew it was because she didn't want to have to dwell on Ryan's presence…or lack there of. He hadn't moved a fraction of an inch since they had brought him there earlier. His eyes continued to stare blankly down at the floor, his uneven breathing the only sound coming from his direction. Every once in a while, Katy would look at Ryan's unmoving reflection in the glass of the windshield, her brow furrowing in worry and distress. Sora knew exactly how she felt. There was a very good chance that Kairi was the same way. Sora sighed dejectedly and stared out the window. Back on Destiny Islands, everyone and their cousin though he had a crush on the red headed girl and, he wasn't going to lie, at first he had. After a few years of pining, however, the attraction had faded to a brotherly over-protectiveness. Riku had always picked on him about it, but Sora had never thought it was more than good natured teasing. Now he was beginning to realize that it had been jealousy in disguise. Rubbing his temples, Sora wished he could turn back the clock and tell his friend once in for all that he, under no circumstances, liked Kairi in that way. It just might get rid of some of Riku's hostility towards him and, more importantly Katy. As his thoughts strayed to the purple haired girl, Sora stole another glance at her. She was watching the controls carefully, trying not to look up every five seconds. She looked tired and worn out and he couldn't help but feel responsible. He knew if he voiced his worries, she would paste on a smile and tell him that it was okay, that _she_ was okay and for him not to worry about her. It was hard to do when he knew that if it wasn't for him, she'd be safely living in Traverse Town, not having to think twice about anyone's safety but her own. It didn't help that he was developing feeling for her. Sora blushed thinking about it. He was guessing the feeling was mutual, considering she'd basically _attacked_ him back in Halloween town…not that he particularly minded. The thing that was plaguing him was that now he had something more to lose. Riku wasn't stupid; he'd kidnapped Ryan and gotten the Heartless to take his heart in order to get to Katy. He'd catch on, sooner rather than later, and then Katy would become a target used to get to him. His groan of frustration was drowned out by the thump the ship made as it entered Traverse Town's atmosphere. Donald beamed them all off, Ryan included. Sora and Katy supported his limp body between them and made their way to Cid's house in the Third District where Leon, Yuffie, Aerith, and, of course Cid were already gathered. All of their eyebrows shot up when they saw the two of them shouldering the weight of the heartless boy.

"Whose he?" Yuffie asked, tilting her head to the side in question .

"My friend Ryan."

Aerith gasped and Leon's eyes closed in obvious sympathy.

"The Heartless got to him." Cid stated, looking grim.

"No, he's just acting like this to be funny." Katy said coldly, her voice shaking as she tried to hold back inevitable tears.

"Easy, kid. No reason to bite anyone's head off." Leon said, trying to calm down the hysterical girl.

"You don't get it; if I don't have Ryan then I might as well not even bother trying to get home. He's the only one I have back there. My own mother could care less if I up and left, in fact, if she hasn't lost her heart and my world hasn't been demolished she's probably much happier then she's been since I was born."

Tears ran down her face now and she furiously wiped at them

"I want to go home. I want to be able to see my friends, sleep in my own bed, hell I wouldn't even mind going to _school_. I want there to be something to go back to, and right now there isn't. There's nothing. So what's even the point? Am I supposed to die, is that it? Do I have nothing to go back to because I'm destined to die protecting Sora? Is this fates way of trying to make it a softer blow? Has _any_ Keyblade Master's Protector _ever_ lived?"

The answer was a given when no one spoke. This only caused the tears to come faster. Then Aerith spoke gently.

"You choose your own destiny. It doesn't have to be that way, you can change it."

Katy shook her head and backed away from the others.

"This is freaking insane. I-I can't deal with this right now."

Groping for the doorknob behind her, Katy fled the house before anyone else could stop her. Sora rounded on Leon and the others.

"She's going to die?!"

"Sora, the whole point of a Keyblade Master _having _a Protector is so they can live on and fight." Leon said stoically.

"She's right. You're all insane! She's a _person_, a human being! I'm not just going to sit back and watch her die!"

"That's what makes it a choice. No other Keyblade Master ever went to any lengths to protect his Protector. You're different Sora. It doesn't have to be that way. You can prevent it."

Sora rolled his eyes and started for the door. His first priority was to find Katy. He stopped short and turned back for a moment, glancing back at Ryan.

"Is there any way to help him?" Sora asked

"When his world is restored, he'll be fine. When you stop the Heartless, he'll come back." Leon said

"Wonderful." Sora bit back sarcastically, turning and heading out the door after his friend.

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Katy ran blindly for about five minutes before slowing to a walk, her arms wrapped around her body protectively. She was being stupid, she knew that. Hell, she was acting like a spoiled brat. Sora was risking so much more than her. The worlds were forever his responsibility; he'd have to deal with them all the time. His two best friends were both in serious trouble; Kairi might never get her heart back and Riku had completely crossed over to the dark side. _She_ was all _he_ had left right now, minus the talking animals, and she was freaking out over the fact that she could _die_. Hello, she'd almost gotten shot by a rouge hunter, gotten most of her arm torn off by a three headed dog, passed out multiple times and was attacked by Heartless on a regular basis. She always _knew_ that dying was a strong possibility, but she never really dwelled on it, at least not long enough to realize that she really didn't want to die. Speaking of dying and the Heartless, a large swarm of said evil creature were attacking someone in the Alley a little further down. Biting back a groan, she ran at them, obliterating them into nothingness. She was about to go check on the girl they were attacking, but she spoke first.

"Katy?!"

Whipping around, Katy's eyes locked onto a pair of familiar green-gray ones

"Cassie?!"

"Oh, my God, Katy! You're alive! Are you okay? What's been going on?"

In a split second, Cassie Halliday was up on her feet and babbling all sorts of concerns to her already weary friend.

"Cass! Just stop for a sec and listen! Go through those doors and into the house that has the lights on. It's right by the entrance, you can't miss it. In there you'll find some people who can help you with your injuries. Tell the guy Leon that you're a friend of mine and he'll explain everything to you."

Cassie nodded vigorously and took off in a run towards the doors to the Third District.

"Cassie, there's one more thing."

Cassie stopped looked at her friend quizzically

"Ryan's in there too. He's, he's not doing so hot."

"W-What do you mean?"

"Just talk to Leon, he'll explain. I just wanted to give you a heads up."

"Where are you going?"

"I just need to think for awhile, I'll be back."

Cassie nodded again and took off for Cid's, leaving Katy to her own devices

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Sora, Donald, and Goofy were searching everywhere for Katy with no luck. Sora finally slumped to the ground, defeated.

"Sora!" Donald exclaimed

"Now, just remember what Donald said to ya: no frowning, no sad faces." Goofy scolded lightly

"How can you guys be so optimistic?! There's still no sign of your King! Now Katy's gone and probably out somewhere having a nervous breakdown and it's all my fault!"

"The King told us to stick with the Key bearer and His Protector. We found you once, we can do it again. We'll find her and make things right, you'll see. You just have to believe in yourself." Goofy said with a grin.

"Believe?" Sora asked.

Then, Kairi's voice echoed around him

"I believe in you. You'll find her."

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"_So listen, child. Even in the deepest darkness, there will always be a light to guide you. Believe in the light and the darkness will never defeat you. Your heart will shine with its power, and push the darkness away. Do you understand, Kairi?"_

_The mayor of Destiny Islands spoke to the unknown girl with a voice laced with hope and reassurance. For Kairi was of a different world, a world that had been destroyed, consumed by darkness. It was beginning and there were only so many who could stop it, but the old woman had faith. She would always have faith in the Island's children._

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Sora gasped as he was brought out of hat could have only been a memory…except it was not his own. It was Kairi's and she's wanted him to see it. As though Kairi herself was pushing him in the right direction, Sora ran to the Alley, somehow knowing that Katy was there. He found her sitting up against the fence, her knees drawn to her chest, her eyes closed. Sora sat next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. Katy leaned against it and they sat like that in silence for awhile.

"You don't have to do it anymore. I'll be fine. You should stay here; see if there's anything you can do for Ryan." Sora said, sincerely

"There's nothing I can do for him. I know that, you know that, everyone does. If I back down now, I'll be a coward. Katyana Tannith is _not_ a coward."

Sora grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her to face him.

"Nothing is going to happen to you. You're not just protecting me anymore; I'm looking out for you too."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

Katy smiled a little before getting up, pulling Sora up with her.

"Let's get to Hallow Bastion fast, something's obviously going down."

Sora grinned at her, brushing his lips against her forehead before leading her back to Cid's.

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After many profuse apologies from everyone, and introductions on Cassie's part, the part was ready to leave.

"I'm sorry we didn't prepare you more for this, Katy. There wasn't a lot of time." Aerith said, looking at her feet.

"Don't worry about it, really. Honestly, I think I've always known. I just didn't want to face it. Besides, it will be okay. I'll be okay." Katy said with a small, slightly forced smile.

Once more round of goodbyes and they left for Hallow Bastion, all of them secretly terrified of what was waiting for them there.

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**A/N:**** SO not looking forward to Hallow Bastion. It's SUCH a long level. My goal is to have it up by Sunday night or very early Monday morning. If not, look for it on Wednesday. REVIEW!!!!!!!!**


	19. Hearts are Stronger than Egos

**Authors Note:**** Happy Sunday my wonderful readers! As promised here is part one of Hollow Bastion. Of course I'd like to thank my new reviewer J1210. Also kudos to J1210, knyghtstar, XRarityoftearsX, SpringBorn, and Omnis Law for add in K'sK to favorite story/story alert/ favorite author/ author alert. I heart you guys too. I'd also like to thank all of you out there, if any, who are reading but not bringing it to attention. You guys all rock as well and I'd love to hear from you and see what you think. Part two will most definitely be out on Wednesday as it is already written. See you then and sorry for all of the line breaks!  
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Disclaimer: Although I don't own Kingdom Hearts, I HAVE gained ownership of my new OC, Cassie! As usual, I also own Katy and Ryan

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The trip to Hollow Bastion was a long and silent one. No one talked, no one fought, and it was just silent. They arrived a little less then a day and a half after they'd left Traverse town. Donald wordlessly beamed them off the ship and they landed in front of a large castle.

"Gawrsh, look at that!" Goofy exclaimed

The four of them all walked over to the edge of the rock platform they'd landed on.

"I know this place…" Sora said as they gazed up at the large castle which had an odd looking force field around it.

"It feels familiar." Katy agreed, eyes sweeping over it.

"Hmm, that's strange." Goofy said.

"I wonder why…" Sora said, more to himself then anyone else.

Katy just continued to stare, brow furrowed. Sora put a hand over his chest.

"I feel warm inside, right here." He said his hand over his heart.

"Aw, you're just hungry." Donald said, scowling as usual.

"Hey, I'm serious!" Sora yelled, rounding on the talking duck.

Then a loud roar pierced the silence causing Sora and Donald to turn to look nervously back at the castle.

"Let's go!" Sora said, taking of in a run.

Donald and Goofy followed quickly, but Katy lingered. She didn't want to go in there, not in the slightest. The whole place looked eerie and had a sense of forbidding all around it.

"C'mon!" Donald called back to her.

Katy shook her head to clear it and took off after her friends. They'd only gone a couple of feet before they heard Riku's voice echoing over the sound of the falls.

"No vessel, no help from the Heartless, tell me…how'd you get here?"

He was talking to a large…beast, a beast who was wearing a purple cape and ratty blue pants. Eh, they'd seen weirder. Anyway, Beast answered

"I simply believed nothing more to it. When our world fell into darkness, Belle was taken from me. I vowed I would find her again, no matter what the cost. I believed I could find her. So, here I am. She must be here. I will have her back!"

"Take her, if you can!" Riku said, drawing a blade.

Beast roared and ran at Riku, who back flipped out of the way, slicing his opponent on the way down. Beast fell to the ground with a groan of pain.

"Stop!" Sora said, running forward, the others following.

"So, you finally made it. About time, I've been waiting for you. We've always been rivals, haven't we? You've always pushed me, as I've always pushed you."

"Riku…"

"But it all ends here. There can't be two Keyblade masters."

Katy did not like the sound of this and she cautiously stepped closer to Sora, standing semi-behind him, drawing her Keyblades threateningly.

"What are you talking about?" Sora asked alarmed.

"Let the Keyblade choose…its true master!" Riku said, holding out his hand like Sora did when he summoned the Keyblade.

They Keyblade started to vibrate and shake in Sora's grip. He grabbed it as tight as he could, but it flew out of his grasp and into Riku's.

"Huh?" Goofy voiced in confusion

"What?!" Donald exclaimed.

"No…" Katy said her eyes wide as she watched with horror. The second Riku touched the Keyblade, Katy's disappeared.

"Maleficent was right. You don't have what it takes to save Kairi. It's up to me. Only the Keyblade master can open the secret door…and change the world."

"But that's impossible, how did this happen I'm the one who fought my way here with the Keyblade!" Sora exclaimed in disbelief

"You were just the delivery boy. Sorry, your part's over now. Here, go play hero with this." Riku said, smirking as he chucked a wooden sword at Sora before he walked off.

Sora fell to his knees in defeat, Katy bending down to comfort him. Donald and Goofy, however, started in the direction of Riku.

"Goofy, let's go. We have to remember our mission." Donald said, his voice heavy with regret

"Oh, well I know the King told us to follow the key and all…but…" Goofy said, looking over warily at Sora, who was still on the ground.

"Katy, are you coming?" Donald asked

She looked up at the two of them, her eyes cold.

"No. I was meant to be _Sora's_ Protector, not Riku's. I'm sticking with him…even if I can't fight."

The two talking animals nodded solemnly and continued after Riku. Donald turned back one last time

"Sora, sorry." He said, actually meaning it as he followed after Goofy.

Katy sighed, sitting next to Sora and waiting for him to pull himself together. Beast, who had begun to stir, began to drag himself also in the direction of Riku. Sora got up to help him, Katy following

"Hey, don't move. You're hurt."

"Why…why did you…you come here?" Beast rasped out.

Sora sighed and hung his head, but Beast continued to speak

"I came to fight for Belle. Even though I am on my own I will fight. I won't leave without her, that's why I'm here."

He continued to drag himself towards the castle that loomed above them. Sora looked down at the wooden sword and picked it up. He looked over at Katy, determination shining in his eyes.

"I'm going to stop Riku."

"I'm coming with you." Katy said, striding towards him.

"No! You can't! I'll barley be able to protect you and you don't have a weapon to protect yourself. Go with Donald and Goofy. You'll be safe with them."

"No. Riku basically killed my best friend. There's no way I'm going anywhere near him."

"Katy--"

"No, Sora. I can fight, I've done it before. If Ryan ever wakes up, ask him. I've broken my fair share of other people's bones."

Sora sighed and nodded taking her hand and pulling her over to Beast.

"We're coming too. Neither of us is giving up now."

Beast nodded and the odd trio began to make their way to the castle of Hollow Bastion.

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Meanwhile, back in Traverse Town, Cassie Halliday was sitting on the bed in the small house in the Third District. Yuffie and Aerith were keeping her company as she watched over Ryan. Cid and Leon had gone off to clear out some Heartless so it was just the four of them. Suddenly, Cassie felt a jolt of…something rush through her. Whispers seemed to go off in her head, so many at once that she couldn't make them out. Screwing her eyes shut, she fell backwards onto the bed, faintly aware of Yuffie and Aerith calling out to her. She could see in her mind a boy with longish silver hair and deep aquamarine eyes. He was holding an odd looking blade shaped like a key. Cassie's eyes snapped open and she inhaled sharply. There was an odd weight in her lap and when she looked down, there were two key shaped blades resting in it. She made sense of the whispers just before they stopped. They were saying "Protector". Meanwhile, Yuffie had gotten Leon and the two of them, plus Aerith were staring at the blades in confusion and a little bit of fear.

"What does it mean?" Aerith asked

"Nothing good." Leon said, looking out the window and into the night sky.

"Nothing good."

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Sora, Katy, and Beast were completely unaware of the new development going on in Traverse Town. They were too bust trying to navigate through the crazy castle. Hollow Bastion consisted of many switches, gates, releasable platforms and weird air bubbles that took you to different locations. Luckily, enemies were far, few, and in between, which was good considering neither of them were as strong as usual. They finally made it through a maze, which consisted of pressing switches to release gates, and pushed the last switch.

"I think something opened." Katy said.

"Let's go back to the main gates" Sora suggested

Beast and Katy trudged after him. They went back through the maze and retraced their steps back to the entrance of the castle. There, they went through two previously locked double doors. The room was dark and it was hard to make out anything but general outlines.

"Be on your guard. They're close, I can feel it. Are you ready for them?"

A noise from behind them snapped Beast out of his rant. His eyes widened.

"Belle?"

A pretty girl and a beautiful yellow gown stood just beyond the door. Darkness consumed her form and a shadow took her place. Beast growled and jumped at it, the door shutting behind him.

"Quit while you can." Sora and Katy whipped around and saw Riku standing in the middle of the now lit room, Donald and Goofy standing a ways to the left of him.

Katy clenched her fists as Sora answered

"No, not without Kairi."

"The darkness will destroy you." Riku said as his normal clothes changed into a purple shirt with the Heartless insignia and matching purple pants. The kicker was what was worn OVER said pants.

"Um, sorry to interrupt the whole showdown shindig, but, I have a question. Why are you wearing a skirt?"

Riku glared at her and Sora stopped trying to look menacing long enough to snicker.

"It's _not_ a skirt."

"Then what is it, if you don't mind me asking?"

"…"

At this point, Sora was nearly on the floor laughing, holding onto Katy's shoulder for support. Even Donald and Goofy were tittering.

"Look, I'm not trying to denounce your evilness, or manliness, or whatever, but seriously, it looks like a grass hula skirt. If you don't know what it is, then why don't you just take it off? I mean, I think you'd look a bit more dangerous without it. You may think you look all cool, but I'm pretty sure the Heartless are secretly laughing at you."

"Just shut up you stupid little girl!" Riku shouted flailing Sora's Keyblade at her.

"You're the one with the skirt and _I'm _the stupid little girl? Huh."

Riku opened his mouth to retort, but Katy held up her hand to stop him.

"No, don't say anything. You'll just dig yourself into a deeper hole. Just carry on with the dramatic smug thing you had going on before." Katy said with a smirk, elbowing Sora in the ribs so he would stop laughing. Said teen cleared his throat and straightened up.

"I'm good now." He said, grinning cheekily and went back to glaring at Riku.

"AS I WAS SAYING, The darkness will destroy you."

"You're wrong Riku. The darkness may destroy my body, but it can't touch my heart. My heart will stat with my friends, it will never die." Sora said, grinning over at Katy after the last bit. She smiled back and nodded.

"Really, well we'll just see about that." Riku said smirking.

It all seemed to happen in slow motion. Riku threw a handful of dark…matter at them. Sora gasped and took half a step back, before setting his jaw and bracing himself for the blow. Katy shrieked, realizing what he was doing and pulled out of his death grip, twirling around so she was in front of Sora, her back to the blast. Sora's eyes widened and he tried to push her aside, but she held fast to his arms, her fingernails digging into the soft skin and drawing blood. They both waited with bated breath for the blow…and then Goofy was in front of them, deflecting it with his shield.

"Sora and Katy ain't going anywhere!" He said firmly

"You'd betray your king?" Riku asked, eyes narrowed.

"Not on your life, but I'm not gonna betray Sora either 'cause he's become one of my best buddies after all we've been through together." Goofy said, turning to the two teens and giving them a grin and a thumbs up, which they returned. Goofy then cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted across the room;

"See ya later, Donald! Could ya tell the King I'm really sorry?"

Donald repeated his friends gesture and yelled

"Hold on, Goofy! We'll tell him together!"

He then proceeded to run across the room and look up at Sora and Katy

"Well, you know…all for one and one for all."

"I guess you guys are stuck with us." Goofy said, cheerily

"Thanks a lot, Donald, Goofy." Sora said sincerely while Katy squealed and hugged them.

"For the record, Duck—Donald, you're not so bad."

"Yeah, you aren't either." The duck replied, his scowl softening.

The wonderful, sentimental moment was interrupted by the arrogant prick across the room.

"How will you fight without a weapon?"

"I know now I don't need the Keyblade. I've got a better weapon, my heart."

Riku scoffed

"Your heart? What good will that weak little thing to for you?"

"Although my heart may be weak, it's not alone. It's grown with each new experience and it's found a home with all the friends I've made. I've become a part of their heart, just as they've become a part of mine, and if they think of me now and then…if they don't forget me…then our hearts will be one. I don't need a weapon, my friends are my power."

Katy's smile got wider and wider through Sora's speech. Something that she usually would have found incredibly corny was now probably the sweetest and most sincere things she had ever heard. That wasn't even the icing on the cake. As soon as Sora stopped talking, the Keyblade disappeared from Riku's grasp and went back into Sora's. Katy gasped as a jolt ran through her and her own Keyblades materialized in her hands as well.

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Cassie was freaking out. Leon had told her the whole shmeal about Katy being Sora's protector. The only reason _she_ would have become the protector is if something really, _really_ bad had happened to one of them…or both of them. She told Leon about the boy she'd seen and he became, if possible, even grimmer. He told her that she'd seen Riku, Sora's friend. He'd also told her that Riku wasn't exactly on their side. When she asked why, he nodded over at Ryan. So now, Cassie was the protector of a boy who willingly served the darkness and had most likely hurt another one of her friends plus the kid ho was supposed to be saving them all. Lovely. Suddenly, the Keyblades disappeared off the chair she'd lain them on and the jolty, adrenaline pumped feeling she'd acquired since this happened left just as quickly as it came. She shot Leon a look and he just shook his head, indicating that he had no idea what the hell was happening anymore.

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Riku had attacked as soon as the Keyblade left his grasp. He fought with the blade he'd used to injure Beast and Katy was sure she'd seen dried blood on the shiny surface. The four of them let him have it. None of them ere particularly happy with him right now and it showed in how quickly they defeated him. Once Riku was too exhausted to fight any longer, his clothes changed back to normal and he ran off. Katy, elated with the last fifteen minutes' events, gave a squeal and ran at Sora, crushing him in a hug and meshing her lips with his. They pilled away, grinning.

"I knew you'd get it back." She said, smiling like a maniac.

"It wouldn't have mattered if I didn't." Sora said back.

"Alright, c'mon you lovebirds!" Donald said, tapping his foot with his arms crossed, his usual scowl back in place.

"You really shouldn't be talking, since you _are_ a bird and all." Katy mumbled to herself as Sora grabbed her hand and pulled her up the stars of the Entrance Hall.

There was a door there that had four empty sockets and wouldn't budge. There was also a small wooden door in the room which, after further inspection, led to the library. Since the library seemed to hold no immediate danger, Katy sent Sora in with Donald and Goofy and began to search for the pieces that would fit in the door.

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Meanwhile, Riku was running down one of the Castles many hallways, probably off to go lick his wounds.

"Why? It was mine." He said to himself, gasping for breath.

"Know this. A heart that is strong and true shall win the Keyblade." A voice from behind him said.

He whipped around and found a person, a man judging by the voice, in a dark cloak standing behind him…glowing. Now if Katy was there, and this had been Sora, she would have told him not to talk to cloaked strangers…especially if they were glowing and appeared out of seemingly nowhere, but since it's been proved countless times that Riku, no matter how hot he may be, is not the sharpest crayon in the box, of course he answered him.

"What? You're saying my heart is weaker than his?"

"For that instant it was. However, you can become stronger. You showed no fear in stepping through the door to the darkness. It held no terror for you. Plunge deeper into the darkness and your heart will grow even stronger."

"What should I do?" Riku asked. Notice he still hasn't asked who the hell this guy is and what he's doing there. Like I said, not the brightest.

"It's really quite simple. Open yourself to the darkness. That is all. Let your heart, your being become darkness itself."

For the third time, Riku's body began to glow and a new power rushed through him. What he didn't expect, however, was for this power to be evil. He didn't expect to be used as a vessel for the cloaked figure until he could regain his own body. Riku now shared his being with another, and he was powerless to stop it.

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For the second time that day, Cassie felt the jolt of protectiveness. Keyblades appeared in her hands again, but they were different from before. There blades were black and had twisted handles. They looked truly evil, which was just as well. Riku was no longer himself. His being now housed darkness and Cassie could feel it seeping into her. She cried out, not wanting it to consume her as it had the older boy. She closed her eyes and thought about anything else, anything good, and anything light. The dark and the light seemed to clash within her and her eyes closed. She could no longer hear the sounds of shouting from the people around her. She wasn't strong enough to remain conscious while light nd dark fought within her so she let herself sleep until it was over.

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Striding confidently to the room that housed the Keyhole, Riku (his name is used for the purpose of this story…and so I wont get confused) joined Maleficent.

"So, I see the path has emerged at last." Riku said, his voice a combination of his own and another's.

"Yes, the Keyhole to the darkness." Maleficent answered smugly.

"Unlock it and the Heartless will overrun this world."

"What do I care? The darkness holds no power over me. Rather, I will use its power to rule all worlds!"

"Such confidence" Riku smirked, holding out his newly obtained Keyblade out to unlock the Keyhole. Nothing happened.

"Impossible! The Princesses of Heart are all here! It must be her!" Maleficent exclaimed, glaring over at Kairi's form

"Without her heart, she will never be able to release her power."

A noise from down the hall made them look up.

"The king's fools are here. I'll deal with them myself. You stay here and guard the princesses." Malificent said to Riku as she exited to the Castle Chapel.

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	20. Suicide is NOT Sacrifice or Hero Like

**Authors Note****: As promised, Hollow Bastion part two! Merci to the new reviewers ****XRarityoftearsX and SpringBorn. Kudos also to ****HeirxxOfxxMerlin for adding K'sK to their favorite story list. ONWARD!!**

Disclaimer: I own my own copy of KH and that's good enough for me. I only own Katy, Cassie, and Ryan.

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Cassie's chest rose and fell evenly and there was a serene smile on her face. If they hadn't seen her convulsing on the bed before, Leon, Yuffie, and Aerith would have thought that she'd simply fallen into a well needed slumber. Leon's eyes came to rest on the dark blades that rested next to her on the bed. They glowed with a seductive power that he knew better than to give in to. The question was, would Cassie? It had been shown throughout history that the Keyblade Master and the Protector had similar personality traits. Did that mean that Cassie was destined for darkness as well? More importantly, why was Cassie Riku's protector at all? Something was going down at Hollow Bastion and they all knew that it wasn't good.

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His body had become his prison. Riku figured that out when he tried to do things that were against the intruder's will. The other being that inhabited his consciousness had a grasp over him, making him completely powerless. To put it bluntly, it was pissing Riku off. There was something else as well, yet another intruder in his mind, but this one was welcome. As he became increasingly frustrated, her could hear her voice telling him to stay calm. He had to conserve his energy for when it would really matter. When he asked her why she was there, she, or rather her voice since he couldn't actually _see_ her, told him that she had to stay with him. It was her job, and this was the only way she could fulfill it since she couldn't get to him any other way right now. Riku still didn't quite understand, but he shrugged it off, not at all minding the optimism. The voice had also told him that whichever he chose, light or dark, would determine her fate as well. He tried to ask her more, but that's all that was said on the matter. So Riku had no choice but to sit back and watch through his own eyes as another used his body to fulfill their own twisted plot. He was beginning to regret trusting the darkness.

**KHKHKHKH**

Katy had found all of the emblem pieces to open the door and Sora and the others had searched the library to their hearts content, not finding much but a few treasures. The four of them walked through the previously sealed door, rode the lift stop to a new area and got off. They entered into yet another dark room and were faced with Maleficent herself. Sora immediately looked over at Katy nervously; he knew she literally couldn't stand Maleficent's presence, but they were all surprised when Katy showed no signs of pain. The purple-haired girl did a mental happy dance and smirked up at the hateful hag. Maleficent returned it with a smirk of her own.

"I'm afraid you're too late. Any moment now the final Keyhole will be unsealed. This world will be plunged into darkness. It is unstoppable."

They all drew their weapons threateningly.

"We'll stop it! After coming this far, there's no way we're gonna let that happen!" Sora stated with determination

"You poor, simple fools. You think you can defeat me? Me, the Mistress of all evil!" Maleficent cried, summoning a giant platform out of thin air. And this, my friends, is where the battle began.

Maleficent stayed on the floating platform the whole time. Katy thought it was because she was afraid to face them head on. When she voiced this, she was reworded with a giant dark meteor being thrown at her face, which she narrowly dodged. Sora and Donald were able to use their gravity magic to make her giant flying rock fall down for a short period of time, but not for that long. Needless to say, they were all pretty happy that they were able to attack her directly instead of just with magic. None of them were big fans of her. The fight was easy, too easy Katy noted as the hag slumped over and backed herself through a dark corridor she didn't bother to close.

"Dude, that has "trap" written all over it." Katy said, nodding in the portal's direction

It was that moment that they were reunited with Beast, who had been unsuccessful so far in retrieving Belle. After some brief introductions, the five of them walked through the dark corridor, expecting the worst.

Maleficent gasped in pain as she tried to slowly make her way to the Keyhole room. Riku appeared behind her, having come through a dark corridor.

"Do you need some help?" He asked the witch, his voice smug.

She didn't have time to answer before Sora and the others ran up.

"Riku!" Sora exclaimed, noting the change in his friend

Katy saw that he was still wearing the skirt, but decided not to mention it. She'd made fun of him enough and she rather liked living.

"Is that--" Donald began, eyes widening at the weapon in Riku's hand

"Yes. A Keyblade, but, unlike yours this Keyblade holds the power to unlock people's hearts. Allow me to demonstrate…"

Riku smirked before swiftly turning around and plunging his Keyblade into Maleficent's chest.

"Behold!"

"Wha--" Maleficent gasped, eyes widening

"Now, open your heart, surrender it to the darkness, become darkness itself!" Riku ripped the blade from the hag's chest and Maleficent began to glow.

"Yes, this is it! This power! Darkness…the true darkness!" She cackled

They all watched in horror as the woman's form seemed to be ripped apart by the green aura around her. When the light faded, a different being entirely had taken Maleficent's place.

"This is not good." Sora mumbled to himself as he, Donald and Goofy stood slack jawed.

The Beast looked grim

Katy's left eye twitched

In front of them was a dragon…a very large, very pissed dragon.

Shit.

Without further ado, the five of them ran at the creature, attacking it from all angles. They hadn't even been fighting ten minutes, when they started to get worn out.

"Strike the back of its neck. That will be its weak point." Beast called to Sora, he himself preoccupied with the beast's head.

The teen nodded and ran for the dragon's hind legs. Katy groaned, chasing after him.

Sora climbed onto the trashing dragon's back, wordlessly pulling Katy up with him. Trying to ignore the vast distance from the ground, Katy followed Sora as they carefully made their way to the dragon's neck. They immediately started hacking at it and the battle began to go more smoothly. Suddenly, the dragon's large tail whipped Katy in the side of the face and for a second or two her vision went white. In those two seconds, she saw a glimpse of Ryan just like she had in Agrabah. His face was pale but other than that he looked determined.

"C'mon, Kate. We can do it together."

As though she'd gotten her second wind, Katy attacked with a vigor she didn't know she had. Within another couple of minutes the dragon was dead, ergo, Maleficent was no more.

"Where did _that_ come from?" Sora asked, making violent gestures with his hands. She was assuming her meant her sudden burst of energy. Either that or he was trying to communicate with her in sign language.

"It was Ryan, he helped me."

Sora's eyes widened, but Riku spoke before he could say anything.

"How ironic. She was just another puppet after all."

"What?" Donald demanded.

"The Heartless were using Maleficent from the beginning. She failed to notice the darkness in her heart eating away at her. A fitting end for such a fool."

Riku smirked (he was doing that a lot lately) and walked backwards into a dark corridor.

"Something tells me we'll be running into him soon." Katy said

She was right. They hadn't gone through three rooms when they reached the one that housed the Keyhole to darkness. The first thing they noticed was Kairi lying on the floor. Katy paled and Sora gasped, running to her. He held her up an shook her as he shouted at her

"Kairi! Kairi! Open your eyes!"

"It's no use. That girl has lost her heart, she cannot wake up."

That girl? Something was up, Katy could feel it. Riku wasn't himself anymore. Apparently Sora noticed too

"What? You…You're not Riku."

"The Keyhole cannot be completed so long as the last Princess of Heart still sleeps."

Huh? Whoa! Stop. Rewind. Princess??? Katy gritted her teeth. Why were they not informed of this?!

"Princess? Kairi's a Princess?!" Sora asked, just as confused as the rest of them.

"Yes, and without her power, the Keyhole will remain incomplete. It is time she awakened."

"Whoever you are, let Riku go! Give him back his heart!"

"But first, you must give the Princess back _her_ heart." Riku, who was not really Riku said, swinging his Keyblade

Sora gasped and pain, his hand over his chest. He fell to his knees and tried to catch his breath. Katy immediately began to stride towards him but the Riku impostor smirked and held up his hand causing a barrier to deter her efforts.

"No, no, no!" Katy whispered to herself, trying to find a way around. It was no use, she was trapped.

"Don't you see yet? The Princess's heart is responding. It has been there all along. Kairi's heart rests within you!"

"Kairi…Kairi's inside me?" Sora asked, still gasping for breath. This caused Katy to pound harder at the barrier around her.

"I know all that there is to know." Not Riku said smugly

"Tell me, who are you?" Sora asked, a trace of desperation in his voice

"It is I, Ansem, the seeker of darkness." Not Riku—err, Ansem said as he strode towards Sora confidently.

Donald and Goofy charged at him in a last attempt to stop him, but they too were thrown behind a barrier. Ansem towered above Sora, who was still on the ground. Katy banged harder against the invisible wall in front of her, sending herself into hysterics as she tried to get to Sora. Her senses were on overdrive and her muscles were twitching in an effort to move. Her brain screamed danger, but there was nothing she could do but watch.

"So, I shall release you now, Princess. Complete the Keyhole with your power. Open the door and lead me into everlasting darkness!"

Ansem brought the Keyblade up right over Sora's head and began to swing it down. Tears flowed from Katy's eyes and she felt like she was on fire. Her body burned for her to move, act, do something, _anything_ but all she could do was scream as Ansem's Keyblade was inches, centimeters, _millimeters_ away when…

"Sora!" Kairi's voice seemed to ring through her head, and, apparently Sora heard it as well because he brought his own Keyblade up, blocking the blow.

"Forget it! There's no way you're taking Kairi's heart!" Sora yelled, livid as he proceeded to beat the crap out of the Riku impostor.

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Without warning, Cassie started screaming. Yuffie, Leon, and Aerith had tried everything to get some sort of response out of her, but nothing had worked. Now her eyes were wide open, her pupils blown out, making her green eyes turn nearly black. Her muscles clenched and sweat dripped down her forehead as she continued to scream bloody murder, thrashing on the bed. Aerith quickly went over to try and soothe her, but narrowly missed a blow to the head. Leon pulled her back by the shoulders and shook his head.

"I don't think there's anything we can do. Whatever is happening to her, we can't stop it."

Aerith nodded sadly and they watched, powerless to do anything, as the young girl flailed helplessly in obvious pain.

"No! Don't, please! Stop. Stop. **STOP!**" Cassie screamed her back arching and her eyes rolling back into her head.

Then she fell still and all was silent once more.

"Is she..?" Yuffie asked, tentatively

"She's breathing." Aerith said with a sigh of relief.

Now all they could do was wait.

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"Riku!" Sora called out as his friend seemed to disappear into the ground.

The second her was gone the barriers fell and Katy sighing with relief, collapsed to the floor, barley conscious and trying to catch her breath. It felt like someone had been sucking her life away through a straw. One of the most painful events in her life.

"Sora! Sora, look!" Donald called

"The Keyhole!" Goofy exclaimed

Sora drew the Keyblade to try and seal it, but nothing happened.

"It's not gonna work. The Keyhole's not finished." Katy called.

Sora went over to her, concerned.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Jeez, I think that was more painful for me than it was for you." She said, laughing slightly.

Sora nodded and looked distractedly over at Kairi and then to Ansem's fallen Keyblade.

"We have to free Kairi's heart, somehow." He mumbled to himself, walking over to the Keyblade.

"Sora?" Goofy asked, nervously.

Katy, still trying to catch her breath, looked up and gasped when she realized what he was going to do.

"Sora!" She yelled, running at him and grabbing Ansem's blade.

"Give it, Katy."

"No."

"Give it!"

"NO."

Sora gripped the blade forcefully, yanking in out of her hands and pushing her aside hard enough to get her far enough away. He turned the blade towards himself and in one swift motion drove it into his chest. At that exact moment, Katy screamed, clutching her own chest. There was no blood or other bodily fluids lost from either of them. Instead lights exploded around the room, flying towards the trapped princesses, the last of which, going to Kairi who opened her eyes to see Sora falling.

"Sora!" she cried out, getting up and running over to him.

Katy had the same idea, running to the falling boy despite the burning pain in her chest. Just as both girls reached him, he disappeared and Katy fell to the ground at Kairi's feet. The younger girl gasped and glanced helplessly around the room, wishing that this was all a horrible dream.

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_What's happening to me? Falling, falling into darkness_

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"Sora, are you really...? No, he can't be! I won't let him go!" Kairi cried. She then registered the presence of the other girl who was on the ground. She looked and felt so familiar…

"Katy?" Kairi whispered, not knowing how she knew the girl's name.

Katy's eyelids fluttered and opened slowly.

"Are you okay?" Kairi asked, helping her up and supporting some of her weight

"He would have wanted me to make sure you were safe." Katy whispered hoarsely, blinking to attempt to see straight.

Then a figure emerged from a dark corridor.

"So, you have awakened at last, Princess. The Keyhole is now complete. You have served your purpose. But now it's over."

Ansem, in his real body this time, smiled wickedly and strode towards them.

Donald and Goofy stepped in front of Katy and Kairi, holding their weapons threateningly

"Don't make another move!" Donald said, firmly

Ansem kept walking…and then suddenly stopped. His eyes widened.

"Impossible…"

A faded form of Riku appeared, and was apparently keeping him from moving.

"No! You won't use me for this!" He said, using his weakening form as a barricade.

"Riku?!" Kairi cried out, confused

"You've got to run, the Heartless are coming!" He shouted, straining to hold Ansem back.

Katy stopped leaning on Kairi and drew her Keyblades

"Go, I'm right behind you." She said, waiting for them to get clear of the room as more Heartless began to pour in. As she turned to leave Riku called out;

"I'm so sorry Katy, for everything, especially Ryan."

Katy looked back and saw the tortured look in his eyes.

"I'm not saying its okay, because it's not, but I accept your apology."

Riku nodded and yelled in an urgent voice;

"Go on, get out of here!"

Katy fled the room after the others, keeping her thoughts focused on getting everyone out safe.

Of course when she got downstairs they were all surrounded and, by the looks of it, Kairi was embracing a shadow Heartless…which promptly turned into Sora.

Katy stood there, her mouth hanging open

"Sora!" Kairi said in disbelief

"Sora!" Donald and Goofy cheered

"Sora." Katy said, striding towards him, tears beginning to fall again. So much for Katy Tannith not being a crier.

Sora embraced her like he had Kairi and placed a kiss on her forehead.

"Are you mad?" He asked quietly

"Furious. You are _so_ going to hear it when we get someplace less life threatening."

All of a sudden, Beast came out of freaking nowhere and began swiping at the Heartless

"Go, now!" He roared

"Come with us!" Sora protested feebly

"I told you, I'm not leaving without Belle. Go!"

They didn't have to be told twice. They piled on the Gummi Ship and set a course for Traverse Town.

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**PUSH THE SHINY BUTTON!!!!!**

**(Well maybe not **_**shiny**_**, but do it anyway!)**


	21. Hell Hath No Fury Like Ansem Scorned

**Authors Note: Okay, so there are officially two chapters left of K'sK plus the epilogue. I'm not one to beg for reviews, but I need all of your opinions over the next couple of chapters. Do you want me to make this into a trilogy, which would make the next story based on the events of Chain of memories? Or would you like me to just go straight to KH2? If I do the trilogy, Chain of memories (for lack of better title right now) would probably be around 20 relatively short chapters. Please let me know soon! No new reviewers this time around, so I'd like to thank everyone who read plus a special thanks to SexyZexy, SpringBorn, and XRarityoftearsX for reviewing again! Means a lot! Enjoy**

Disclaimer: Katy: ThexHushxSound got tired of telling you that she DOESN'T OWN KINGDOM HEARTS. So now I'm doing it. ThexHushxSound does not own Kingdom Hearts, however, she does own Cassie, Ryan and *sigh* me.

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The first half our spent in Traverse Town was devoted to Katy chewing Sora out about his actions in Hollow Bastion.

"And if you _ever_ think of pulling a stunt like that again, I swear to GOD I will kill you myself!"

Sora opened his mouth to remind her that she was literally unable to hurt him, but she cut him off

"I know what you're going to say, and I'm telling you, I _will_ find a way." Katy said through clenched teeth, glaring at her…friend… boyfriend? She really didn't know and didn't really want to think about it at this point.

Sora sighed as she turned to walk away, glad the worst of it was over, when Katy suddenly turned around and slapped him across the face without warning before storming out of Cid's house while Sora, now with an angry red hand print on his cheek, wondered what the hell just happened.

"You deserved that. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." Yuffie managed to get out between bursts of laughter.

Sora mumbled something incoherent and rubbed his smarting cheek.

Once everyone had calmed down, they all, meaning Leon, Yuffie, Sora, and Kairi, began to process the events that happened over the last couple of hours.

"So the darkness is flowing out of that keyhole." Leon said after Sora's story of Hollow Bastion had come to an end

"No wonder there are more and more Heartless appearing everywhere. The only way to stop them is--" Yuffie began

"Seal the Keyhole, right?" Sora finished, his face determined

"Maybe, but no one knows what will happen once it's sealed." Leon said

"Well, we can just sit here, we have to do something! I've got a friend back there!"

"That's right; you still have one more friend to worry about. Riku's Keyblade must have been born from the captive princess' hearts—just like that Keyhole you saw. Of course, without Kairi's heart, it remained incomplete. Once that Keyblade was destroyed, the princess' hearts should have been freed. Don't worry, Sora. If anyone can save your friend, you can…but first I would suggest going to find Katy, she's probably over at the Hotel with Cassie and Aerith."

Sora nodded, Cassie's …condition having already been explained. Telling Kairi and the others he would be back soon, he went off to find her.

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Meanwhile, over at the Hotel, Cassie was relaying the story of how she'd arrived in Traverse Town to her long time friend.

"When I woke up I was outside a castle. Some of the guards there found me and too me to the Queen. She told me I was at Disney castle and asked me what happened. Once I told her, she let me stay." Cassie smiled. "She was really nice to me, Queen Minnie. After a month though, I started to get restless. I wanted to see if I could find anybody from our world. The Queen understood and she gave me a vessel, told me Traverse Town was a good place to start. I got here, not really prepared for the Heartless. They weren't at Disney Castle, so I'd only heard of them." Cassie grinned. "Then you showed up and the rest, as they say, is history."

Katy shook her head.

"You, my friend, are probably the luckiest person alive right now."

Cassie laughed and nodded. Her grin melted as her gaze moved over to Ryan.

"I heard what happened to him. That kid is sick, I'm glad the whole protector thing wore off for awhile."

"What exactly happened?"

"I dunno. I passed out and for awhile, I think I was in his head or something. I tried to keep him calm so he could focus on getting his body back but he went and blew it when he helped you escape. I woke up a little after that."

"Ugh. Life sucks right now." Katy groaned, rubbing her temples

"Tell me about it." Cassie agreed.

There was a timid knock at the door and it opened, revealing Sora. Aerith, who had been standing guard outside, smiled sheepishly at Katy before shutting the door quietly.

"Katy, I'm not going to apologize for what I did at Hollow Bastion, because it was the only way to get Kairi to wake up, but, I am sorry for not thinking about how it would hurt you too and letting you in on the plan." Sora said in a rush, getting straight to the point.

Katy rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, you're forgiven. Just know that it doesn't make my job any easier when you go off and try to do yourself in."

Sora grinned and Cassie rolled her eyes.

"So, where's Kairi? Katy asked, springing up off the bed."

"Um…"

"What do you mean um? Go find her and talk to her! Jeez, you've only been trying to find her since we first met!"

Sora nodded vigorously and kissed Katy softly before he left.

Katy turned around to find Cassie gaping at her.

"Spill!" The dark haired girl said, sitting pretzel legged on the bed.

Katy groaned and sat next to her, not looking forward to rehashing her epic journey.

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Sora found Kairi in the secret waterway not to far from the hotel. She was gazing at a mural on the wall.

"A light at the end of the tunnel."

"Oh, you're Grandma's story right?" Sora asked.

Kairi whipped around, surprised.

"That's right. We were together."

"You know what's funny? I looked everywhere for you, but you were with me all along. Finally we're together, Kairi. Now it's time to get Riku back."

"You think it will ever be the same between us? Riku's lost his…"

"When I turned into a Heartless, you saved me, remember? I was lost in the darkness. I couldn't find my way. As I stumbled through the dark, I started forgetting things—my friends, who I was. The darkness almost swallowed me. But then I heard a voice—your voice. You brought me back."

"I didn't want to just forget about you, Sora. I couldn't."

"That's it! Our hearts are connected. And the light from our hearts broke through the darkness. I saw that light. I think that's what saved me. No matter how deep the darkness, a light shines within. I guess it's more than just a fairy tale."

There was a comfortable silence, both of them in disbelief that the other was actually okay.

"Well, let's go!" Kairi said, determined.

"You can't go." Sora said firmly

"Why not?"

"Because it's way too dangerous."

"C'mon, Sora. We made it this far by sticking together. You can't go alone." Kairi whined

"Kairi, even if were apart, we're not alone anymore, right? Besides, I won't be alone. Katy, Donald and Goofy will be there."

"I can't help?"

"You'd kind of be in my way."

Kairi laughed a little and gave in.

"Okay, you win." She grabbed Sora's hand and placed something in it. "Take this. It's my lucky charm, be sure to bring it back to me!"

"Don't worry, I will."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

Sora ginned and bean to leave, but Kairi called out again.

"Sora! Make sure you take care of Katy! You two care about each other so don't do something stupid and boyish to mess it up!"

Sora blushed and waved his hand to let her know he heard her. Kairi's laughter echoed around the waterway as he left.

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Back in Hollow Bastion, the arty made their way to the castle chapel. There, five of the seven princesses were gathered and looking quite concerned. Katy gritted her teeth when she saw Alice and Sora had o pull her back to keep her from lunging at the smaller girl

"It was only twenty minutes!" he hissed in her ear.

"Fine, be like that." Katy answered back, maturely sticking her tongue out at him.

The Princesses explained to them about the darkness pouring out of the Keyhole. They made their way over to it and strode in, determined to seal it. As always, however, there was a huge monster blocking their way. The kicker was, it was actually the easiest fight they'd ever fought and was over in a matter of minutes.

As Sora stepped forward to seal the Keyhole, Leon's voice called out to them from outside.

"Sora. You did it."

Curious what the heck he was doing here (and why the hell he hadn't helped them fight) They all walked out of the Keyholes chamber and asked him, plus Yuffie and Aerith, just that.

"What are you guys doing here?"

"This was our childhood home, we wanted to see it again." Aerith explained

"We came on Cid's ship." Yuffie added

"It's in wore shape then I thought." Leon said, looking around. "After this is all over, we have to start some serious reparations."

"We can come and help." Sora offered.

The three looked at each other uneasily.

"You won't be able to, you'll be back I your own world." Yuffie said slowly.

"So, we'll visit on the gummi ship."

"You don't understand. The reason no one knew about the other worlds before was because they were isolated, surrounded by walls. The Heartless broke down those walls, bringing them together. Once the Heartless are gone, the walls com back." Leon explained

Sora and Katy exchanged worried glances.

"The only person who can travel freely between worlds is the Protector, in case he or she is needed by the Keyblade Master." Aerith said with a smile.

The two teens brightened a bit.

"We may never meet again, but we will never forget each other. " Leon said

"No matter where we are, our hearts will bring us together again." Aerith added

"Besides, I couldn't for get _you_ even if I wanted too." Yuffie huffed, glaring playfully at Sora

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Sora!" Donald's outraged cry broke the tension between the Keyblade Master and the ninja.

"Hurry, come and close the Keyhole!" Goofy said urgently.

"Sora, good luck." Leon said with a rare smile.

Sora nodded and grinned at all of them except Yuffie before grabbing Katy's hand and tugging her back to the Keyhole room. Katy, Donald, and Goofy all fell silent as Sora sealed it, praying that this mess would soon be over

**

* * *

**

Of course it's never that simple. After thanking them, the Princesses told them of another source of darkness. They believed it was coming from the place Ansem had gone when he'd let the darkness engulf him. The four promised to find him and set off to do just that, all of them secretly dreading the meeting.

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**REVIEW PLEASE!!!!!**


	22. Don't Fall Asleep Without Saying Goodbye

**Authors Note: Sorry I couldn't get this out yesterday, I had a ton of homework. First off as always, my thanks to my new reviewer CatchingForRain. Also much thanks to ****SUNTAN140, CatchingForRain, m31galaxy, and KairiDestiny for adding K'sK to story alert/favorite story/favorite author/author alert. We're at the end, my friends. So far, the trilogy is ago. The last two chapters will be out by Sunday. Enjoy and keep letting me know about the trilogy/sequel!**

Disclaimer- I own nothing recognizable. Just Katy, Cassie, and Ryan.

**

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**

They flew to the only unknown location their map showed. The heartless ships nearly tripled in number and were stronger, so strong they'd almost been knocked out of the sky a few times. They arrived at a large black hole. Purple and black tentacles of darkness rose out of it, swiping hungrily at the air. Around the tentacles were swirls of dark blue clouds, covering the world's surface and making it impossible to see what lay beneath. Donald wordlessly beamed them from the ship and they landed on a large rock formation in the middle of a vast expanse of what was nearly nothingness. In the distance they could see a large spectral light surrounded by large pillars of rock. Small islands with different colored chests dotted the path leading towards it.

"Gawrsh, is that all that's left of the worlds taken by the Heartless?" Goofy asked warily.

"Those worlds will be restored if we beat Ansem, right?" Sora asked, uneasily

"You betcha." Donald answered confidently

For the sake of her own world and her friends, Katy certainly hoped so.

"But, if we do beat him, and all these worlds are restored and disconnected, what's gonna happen to this place? And to us?"

"Well, uh…" Donald began, looking to Katy for help.

"Don't look at me. I've got nothing."

"This is a Heartless world, so maybe it will just disappear." Goofy said

The others turned to look at him, alarmed.

"No worries, even if this place goes poof, our hearts ain't goin' nowhere. I'm sure we'll find our pals again. Yup, I just know that we will." Goofy said, happily.

"Yeah, you're right. Sora said, managing a grin

Katy wasn't so sure. This place was starting to get to her.

She shivered slightly and took a step closer to Sora. Her skin crawled and hummed uncomfortably as she took in the scenery. Her eyes flicked over to the taller boy and he looked back at her with a face that screamed worry and determination.

"We can do this." He said confidently, taking her hand.

Katy nodded and looked away. She'd never been _scared_ of a world before, probably because after awhile you'd know what to expect. This world was just one big unknown. Almost everyone is scared of the unknown.

They walked in the direction of the first little island and were suddenly ambushed by a slew of Heartless. They were large shadows that had the body of a human and fought with swords. They were also incredibly fast, you could barley see them. When the Invisibles had been defeated, they continued on their way, defeating more enemies as they went. Finally, the last monster was defeated and they were only a few feet away from the large light.

"I wonder where that Ansem feller went." Goofy wondered aloud, scratching his head.

"Dive into the most dangerous place and we'll find him!" Donald said, scowling as usual.

"Why do you think he's choosing darkness?" Katy asked the others, staring up at the black and purple sky.

No one had an answer for her, so she did the normal thing and answered herself.

"I think it's because he has nothing left. He spent so long looking for it that he pushed everyone and everything he knew away and now darkness is the only thing he had to live for. I almost feel sorry for him…" Katy said, her voice trailing off.

"He's destroying the worlds Katy." Sora protested, not wanting to think of Ansem as nothing more than another enemy.

"I said almost." Katy said as she walked through the light, the others following.

They found themselves in a room made completely of gummi. It was relatively quiet and no one sensed danger so they began to navigate through slowly, meandering in the safe haven as long as they could.

"So, what did Cassie say? About being Riku's protector I mean." Sora asked, glancing sideways at Katy.

"Apparently it was pretty painful…since he was having an inner conflict I mean. Apparently, when he gave his body up, she passed out. She said something about being able to talk to Riku through his mind though. She was trying to help him get his body back."

"Even though he was…responsible for Ryan?"

Katy shrugged

"I guess. If it was me, I wouldn't have, but…" Katy bit her lip "She said he was pretty freaked out. She had to calm him down a lot."

Sora scoffed

"It's his own fault."

"I agree with you, but he regretted everything, apparently. Everyone deserves a second chance."

"Gee, I thought you'd be the first to say he deserves to rot in his own body." Sora teased

Katy gave a half smile.

"He apologized to me…in Hollow Bastion. He apologized for everything."

"Really?"

"Yep."

"Huh. Who knew, Riku has a conscious after all."

They were coming to the end of the large gummi platform they were on and Sora realized what they were going to have to do. Sighing, he turned back to his companion

"Hey, Katy?"

She turned around, looking at him quizzically. Her expression turned to one of outrage when Sora shoved her roughly off the platform and into the glowing crater below.

**

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**

Katy hadn't had time to yell at Sora for pushing her into the portal-within- a- pit yet. He second they'd landed, he'd taken off into a pillar of light. Following along with Donald and Goofy, they found themselves back in Traverse Town. Confused, they dismantled the enemies there and went through the door that usually led to the First District. Instead, they were transported to yet another pillar. This continued for awhile, they were transported to previous worlds and defeated those particular enemies. Agrabah, Atlantica, and Halloween Town went by in a blur, the party killing the Heartless mindlessly. Neverland was a bit of a challenge however. After they beat the few Heartless, they had a bit of trouble finding the way out. When they finally did, they found themselves in front of a blood red light pillar.

"Something tells me something worse than bunnies is in there." Katy mumbled, looking at the pillar warily.

The others agreed and were prepared for the worst as they walked in, and found themselves in a strange looking lab. Taking care of the few enemies in the room, the party approached the large machine in the center of the room. There was a large plaque on it and they leaned in to get a closer look:

_One born of the heart and darkness, devoid of hearts, ravage all worlds and bring desolation._

_Seize all hearts and consummate the great heart. All hearts to be one, one heart encompass all._

_Realize the destiny: the realm of Kingdom Hearts. The great darkness sealed within the great heart._

_Progeny of darkness, come back to the eternal darkness._

_For the heart of light shall unseal the path._

_Seven hearts, one Keyhole, one key to the door._

_The door of darkness, tied by two keys._

_The door of darkness to seal the light._

_None shall pass but shadows, returning to the darkness._

_One born of the heart and darkness, hunger for every heart until the dark door opens._

"Okay, just a little creepy and sadistic." Katy said, backing away from the machine slowly.

The others followed suit, also a little freaked. They left the lab and made there way to a giant, swirling red portal in the wall.

"I guess our impending doom is waiting for us through there." Katy said

"Yep, looks like it." Sora agreed.

The four exchanged glances before plunging into it

**

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**

The Chernabog was a huge bat-like…thing. They found themselves fighting over a large chasm and ere all glad for their ability of flight. Hacking at the overgrown rodent, Katy kept close watch on Sora. She knew this was it. After they defeated Ansem, they could go home. Everything would be okay again and they could actually enjoy their lives instead of constantly having to fear for them. Katy wasn't letting anything mess that up. When Chernabog was dead they could all breathe easier. They plunged into the crater it left and went down into a slew of portals before they finally ended up in a room with a large Heartless crest.

"HOW is this a dead end?!" Katy exclaimed, kicking at the insignia.

That's when the Heartless attacked. Go figure.

It was wave after wave after wave of every type of monster, from shadows to invisibles. A half hour went by sluggishly and they were still slashing at black forms. Finally, the last piece of the crest fell out of it's spot on the wall and the room fell silent. Resting for only a minute, the party continued through the hole the crest left. They found themselves in a small room with a single brown door. Donald and Goofy went through and Katy was about to follow, but was held back by Sora.

"What?" She asked, looking up at him.

"I think…this is it." Sora said, looking at the door with an intensity that made it look like he was trying to see through it.

Katy smiled sadly.

"I think you're right."

Sora cleared his throat, blushing a little.

"When this is over, when we get back, do you think that maybe, after you go home for awhile, you'd want to stay on the Island for awhile? With me?"

Katy blinked a couple of times, processing his awkward speech before her face broke out into her first real smile in a long time. For once, she didn't answer with a sarcastic comment.

"Yeah. I'd like that."

Sora wore a grin to match hers and he leaned in, kissing her soundly before pulling her through the door.

**

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**

A large sandy beach greeted them as they entered. Turquoise waters lapped at the shoreline and wooden huts lined the shore. The skyline of a small city shimmered in the distance. Sora's eyes grew wide.

"Is this…my Island?"

They began to search the beach for anything out of place. Nothing seemed to be wrong though. It was actually really quiet. Too quiet for what should have been a crowded beach. Sora approached the small alcove he, Kairi, and Riku called the Secret Place. Then someone began to speak, their voice coming from everywhere at once.

"This world had been connected."

"What was that?" Goofy asked, alarmed

The voice continued

"Tied to the darkness. Soon to be completely eclipsed. There is so very much to learn and you understand so little. A meaningless effort. One who knows nothing can understand nothing."

The island began to fade and crumble around them. Looking up, the four of them saw Riku standing on the beach, near the water (STILL wearing the skirt, mind you) with his back to them. They approached him cautiously since they all knew it really wasn't him.

"Take a look at this tiny place. To the heart seeking freedom, this island is a prison surrounded by water. And so this boy sought to escape from his prison. He sought a way to cross over into other worlds and he opened his heart to the darkness." Ansem's voice flowed out of Riku's mouth and when the supposed teen turned to face them, his body was replaced with Ansem's as well.

"Riku!" Sora cried out.

"Don't bother. Your voice can no longer reach him where he is. His heart belongs again to darkness. All worlds begin in darkness and all so end. The heart is no different. Darkness sprouts within it, grows, consumes it, such is its nature. In the end every heart returns to the darkness whence it came. You see, darkness is the hearts true essence." Ansem drawled on in his irritating know-it-all voice. Guy sounded like a documentary on the history channel.

"That's not true!" Sora said firmly, weapon drawn. Donald, Goofy, and Katy stood behind him, also ready to fight. Sora continued;

"The heart may be weak, and sometimes, it might even give in. But I've learned that deep down there's a light that never goes out."

Ansem smirked at them, levitating himself off the ground.

"So, you have come this far and still you understand nothing. Every light must fade. Every heart returns to darkness!"

A large shadow creature appeared behind him and he charged at them. Ansem hit them with everything he had. They managed to dodge most of it, but they had a few run-ins with the crazed scientist's guardian, who would latch onto them and literally suck the energy out of them. Finally, Ansem stumbled back into a crevice, leaving them to follow him.

"You up for this?" Katy asked, looking nervously behind her.

"Not like we have much of a choice." Sora said shrugging and waiting for the worst.

They jumped down and spiraled into darkness. The blackness was all around them. The only thing piercing through it was Ansem's voice.

"Behold the endless abyss. Within it lies the heart of all worlds: Kingdom Hearts! Look as hard as you are able, you'll not find even the smallest glimmer of light. From those dark depths, are all hearts born, even yours. Darkness conquers all worlds!"

And boy did the worst deliver.

Ansem had become a giant genie look-alike _thing_. He was attached by dark ribbons to his guardian, which was sitting on a giant ugly dragon looking creature. Katy had managed to grab onto the dragon…thing and pull herself up onto it, watching as Donald and Goofy were pulled away into a portal. Sora was still freefalling down.

"SORA, YOU DUMBASS! YOU CAN _FLY_!" She shrieked.

Apparently he heard her because he flew up and began to help her demolish the giant creature.

First, they hacked and slashed at the genie-Ansem. Every once and awhile we swung his sword at them and would shoot lasers. Dodging those, plus the additional projectiles around them, they were able to weaken him, forcing him to retreat to a pod to be revived. They were then transported into a completely pitch black room where they were attacked by a swarm of shadows.

"BUNNY INVASION!" Katy yelled, swinging her Keyblades at them wildly.

After they were gone, Sora attacked a thin cord that had appeared in them room. They were then transported back outside. They continued to demolish different parts of the monster, reuniting with Donald and Goofy somewhere along the way. Then Ansem, fully restored now, came at them again. It was even easier a second time, especially now since they had Donald and Goofy to help them. They all attacked from different angles, hitting any part of the deranged man they could reach until he expired, hopefully for the last time. Then things started to get fuzzy. At first they all were in disbelief that they'd actually done it. That they'd _won_. Katy flew around the side of the dragon to find Sora, who had the same idea and was looking for her. He turned to her and grinned. He didn't see Ansem raise the sword, in a last attempt to end him. Katy did. She screamed, flew at Sora at high speed, pushing him out of the way. The blade connected with her chest. Everyone fell silent.

There was no burst of lights like there was when Sora had sacrificed himself to save Kairi, there was just blood.

So much blood.

_When I see your smile  
Tears run down my face  
I can't replace_

"Sora?" Katy asked, blinking. Her vision had gone fuzzy from the pain in her chest and it was nearly impossible to breathe.

_And now that I'm strong  
I have figured out  
how this world turns cold  
and it breaks through my soul_

In a millisecond Sora flew over to her and laid her down as best he could in midair. The long blade penetrated completely through the side of her chest. Right where her heart was. Kneeling beside her, he tried to staunch the blood flow around the wound, but it was useless. She was dying. Katy was dying and it was all his fault.

_And I know I'll find  
deep inside me  
I can be the one_

"Sora, It's okay." Katy said, trying to find the air she needed to talk within her lungs. Talking was painful and breathing was getting unbearable. She was so tired…

"…Is my fault! My fault! I was stupid! Didn't…monster…Ansem…Katy?...Katy?!...KATY!"

Voices flitted in and out and she tried to hold on to them, to preserve some sort of reality. It was hard to concentrate though. It was so cold…

_I will never let you fall  
I'll stand up with you forever  
I'll be there for you through it all__Even if saving you sends me to heaven_

_It's okay. It's okay. It's okay._

New voices appeared, but Katy didn't bother to try and make sense of them. She was already too far gone. A warm, metallic liquid began to fill her mouth and trickle out. Sora's voice broke through the fog then, loud and clear.

"Katy, hold on. Help is here. You're going to be okay."

He was lying through his teeth. She knew a bit about mortal wounds. Getting stabbed all the way through the chest was one of them. Katy shook her head as if to tell him not to get his hopes up, but his voice insisted.

"You're going to be fine. Trust me. Just stay awake."

Katy continued to shake her head. She was going to die. She humored him anyway though, keeping her eyes open even though she wanted to close them.

_Seasons are changing  
And waves are crashing  
And stars are falling all for us  
Days grow longer and nights grow shorter  
I can show you I'll be the one_

Sora had no freaking clue how they got there. No freaking clue, but he'd never been happier to see Cassie Halliday and Ryan Delagar. Ryan went over to Katy and lifted her as gently as he could, making sure not to disturb her wounds any more.

"We have to hurry, she needs a hospital." Ryan said, putting the wounded girl into the vessel Cid leant them to come on.

"What can I do?" Sora asked frantically.

"Nothing you can do. The worlds' walls are coming back up. We're all going to be back home soon." Cassie glanced over at her friend "I just hope it's soon enough."

Sora went over to Katy, who was miraculously still awake.

"Sorry I broke my promise." He said, gripping her hand.

"It's okay. I was keeping mine." She wheezed, blinking rapidly.

"Remember, you have another one to keep. You said you'd come stay with me on the Islands."

"I'll do my best." Katy said, managing a smile.

"Sora, you need to go. It's happening." Ryan said.

Sora nodded and jumped off the ship

"Make sure she stays awake." He told Cassie firmly.

"Don't worry. Ry's not gonna let her die that easy." Cassie said, closing the door to the ship.

The vessel began to float away. Sora was pulled in the other direction, along with Donald and Goofy, back towards the door to Kingdom Hearts.

_I will never let you fall  
I'll stand up with you forever  
I'll be there for you through it all  
Even if saving you sends me to heaven_

**

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**

They entered the abyss and found Ansem, also struggling for life, in his normal form.

"It is futile; the Keyblade alone cannot seal the door to darkness. Kingdom Hearts! Fill me with the power of darkness…"

The door opened the tiniest bit and shadows began to leak out.

"Supreme darkness!" Ansem exclaimed.

"You're wrong! I know now, without a doubt. Kingdom Hearts…is light!" Sora exclaimed

He was right. Light consumed Ansem and soon after, he ceased to exist. Good riddance.

Meanwhile, the trio ran over to the door and tried to shove it closed.

"C'mon!" Donald yelled. Millions of Heartless had their eyes fixed on the door, waiting to swarm

"I can't." Sora said, his voice defeated.

A familiar glove gripped the door.

"Don't give up!"

It was Riku, the REAL Riku. He began to help pull from the other side.

"C'mon, Sora. Together, we can do it."

"Okay!" Sora said.

They continued to shove at the apparently very heavy door, but it was no use. The Heartless began to creep closer. Then a figure appeared among them. Donald and Goofy's jaws dropped.

"Your Majesty!" They said in unison.

"Now, Sora. Let's close this door for good." King Mickey said, holding up his own Keyblade.

"Close it, quick!" Donald said.

"But…" Sora hesitated.

"Don't worry; there will always be a door to the light." Mickey reassured him.

"Sora, you can trust King Mickey." Goofy said, sincerely

"Now! They're coming!" Riku exclaimed to the King.

"Donald, Goofy, thank you." Mickey said with a smile

With their joined efforts, the door began to close. Riku smiled from behind it.

"Take care of her…and tell Katy I'm sorry…again." Sora nodded and the door to Kingdom hearts closed, hopefully forever.


	23. It Sure As Hell Aint Normal But We Deal

**Authors Note: I'd just like to say thanks to everyone who has ever read this story, whether you still are, or you got bored of it and stopped. It's been an awesome ride for me…this is the first multi-chapter story that I've finished AND actually liked. While I love all of my reviewers, I'd like to especially thank soraroxas365. She's stuck with me since the beginning of the story and left extremely entertaining reviews on pretty much every chapter. Thanks, dude, you rock! Anyways, if FanFiction cooperates with me, this chapter and the epilogue should be out around the same time. As for the sequel, I AM doing a trilogy since no one asked me to do otherwise. I want to get a few chapters out on another story first, but the wait shouldn't be longer than a week, tops. So, without further ado, the FINAL chapter of The Key's Keeper!!!!!**

Disclaimer: Sadly, I still don't own Kingdom Hearts. I just own Katy, Ryan, and Cassie.

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**

Kairi had appeared just as suddenly as Cassie and Ryan had. Sora had no idea _how_ she was there, but he raced over to her anyway. She was standing on a patch of sand, taking small steps back as it began to separate from the abyss that held the door to Kingdom Hearts.

"Kairi!" He called out, reaching her just as she began to slip away

"Sora!" She exclaimed, looking at him helplessly.

There was nothing either of them could do. She was going back.

The platform shook violently and Kairi stumbled as she was thrust backward. Sora gripped her wrist and the red-head looked up at him.

"Kairi, remember what you said before? I'm always with you too. I'll come back soon, I promise!"

"I know you will." Kairi said, smiling sadly.

The distance between them became too great and Sora let go of Kairi, watching as she drifted back to her place on Destiny Islands.

All of the worlds were being restored, friends and family were reunited. Everything seemed right with all the worlds…except for one.

**

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**

Back on Earth, the ship carrying Ryan Delagar, Cassandra Halliday, and Katyana Tannith had landed. Someone had alerted the paramedics and they were waiting with an ambulance when the ship landed. No questions were asked and there were no strange glances. Apparently the people of Earth, after being through hell, were ready to accept anything. The paramedics got the blade out of Katy's chest and were working on staunching the blood flow.

"She needs a transfusion."

"Blood type B negative"

"Get me 500ccs stat."

The sporadic, frantic beeping from the heart monitor began to falter and finally gave up, the small peaks dropping to a single flat line.

"We lost her, I need paddles now!"

Ryan, who had volunteered to ride in the ambulance with the paramedics, watched the green flat line in horror and anger.

"Come on!" He whispered under his breath

"Still no response, I think we should call it."

"Come ON, Kate." Ran mumbled fiercely

As though she had heard him, Katy's heart started up again. The beat was faint, but it was there.

The ambulance arrived at the hospital and Katy was rushed to the OR. Ryan was told to wait in the waiting room where he found Cassie and Katy's mother, Dawn Tannith.

Hours passes with no word.

Finally, at around midnight, the doctor came sought them out in the waiting room, looking grim.

"Is she dead?" Mrs. Tannith asked, tears shining in her eyes.

"No, Mrs. Tannith, she's alive, but I'm afraid she's gone into a coma."

Ryan swore under his breath and Cassie burst into silent tears. Mrs. Tannith sighed.

"What are her chances?"

"Of coming out of it? Slim to none. I highly recommend--"

Mrs. Tannith cut him off

"You recommend _what_? That I kill my daughter? Not likely."

"It's not going to be cheap M'am."

"I have insurance."

And with that, Dawn Tannith walked out of the hospital, her nose in the air, not even asking if she could see her daughter.

It was Cassie who asked the doctor that and he agreed, letting her and Ryan in before leaving to go check on another patient.

"You have to wake up, Katy. You just have to." Cassie said, willing her friend to open her eyes. She turned to Ryan.

"Do you think she can hear us?"

Ryan shook his head

"The doctor said it's not likely."

The two teens lingered awhile longer before they were shooed out by a nurse. Apparently, visiting hours were over.

The doctor was wrong. Katy could hear everything. She was very much alive; she just couldn't bring herself to wake up.

**

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**If the epilogue isn't already out, it should be very soon. Stay tuned.**


	24. Epilogue

**EPILOGUE**

(_P.S. I still don't own Kingdom Hearts._)

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**

It was a nice place.

There were no Heartless, that was a plus right there. There was soft green grass lining a long, winding dirt road. Green trees also dotted the landscape around them, along with the occasional flower.

Yeah, it was a nice place, but it wasn't home.

Sora knew that the reason why he hadn't returned home was because he had to find Riku, the King, and find a way to get to Earth to see if Katy was okay. Donald and Goofy were still with him and they all were walking silently down the dirt road.

"Well, now what do we do." Donald said, scowling.

"We've got to find Riku, King Mickey, and Katy." Sora answered

No one dared mention the fact that Katy could very well be dead. They just continued walking

"But, uh, where do we start lookin' for that there door to the light?" Goofy asked, puzzled

The trio sighed.

Sora looked up and gasped

There, with them in the middle of nowhere was the King's freaking dog.

What. The. Hell.

"Pluto?" Donald questioned, wondering if he was seeing an illusion.

"Hey, Pluto! Where ya been?" Goofy asked, cheerily.

Pluto had a letter clutched in his mouth and the three gasped.

"Gawrsh, that's the King's seal!" Goofy exclaimed.

"Hey, have you seen King Mickey?" Sora asked the dog, as though he expected him to answer.

Instead, Pluto took off down the road, letter clutched in his mouth.

"Guys, C'mon!" Sora yelled, racing after the King's canine.

The trio ran down the road, hope on the horizon, believing with all their hearts that everything would work out in the end.

_Remember, Sora. You are the one who will open the door to the light._

**

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**

_Nowhere_

_Katy blinked once, twice, three times before she realized that she was seeing only white because that was all there was. She stood up and looked around her. It looked so familiar, but she couldn't remember why._

_Come to think of it, she couldn't remember much of anything._

_Her name was Katyana Tannith, but everyone called her Katy._

_She was fifteen years old._

_She had blonde hair, which she dyed purple and eyes the color of sea foam._

_There was something she was meant to be doing…something very important._

_Other than that, there was nothing but blinding white light surrounding her on all sides._

_Sighing to herself, she began to walk._

_Maybe if she walked for a little bit she could remember where she was supposed to be right now…_

**

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**

**Regardless of warnings, the future doesn't scare me at all**

**-Simple and Clean, Utada Hikaru**


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